The Gathering Twilight
by unrelenting-torment247
Summary: Right after HBP. First in a 4 book series. HarryMultiship no slash Story inspired by Warcraft Three Reign Of Chaos. Includes bits from other sources. Full summary inside. Adult themes I think
1. Advice From The Next Great Adventure

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, bits of other shows and books are involved such as Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Full Metal Alchemist (not enough to actually make it a crossover).

Arthur's Note: This is my attempt at redeeming myself for that horrible Harry Potter fan fiction that I wrote before, I hope that this is better than that one at least.

Pairings:

Harry/Multiship (definitely include Black sisters, Fleur, Tonks and exclude Ginny and Hermione)

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspects of Harry Potter other than perhaps the actual books that are published. This is written for fun and definitely not profit.

* * *

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter One:**

**Advice From The Next Great Adventure

* * *

**

It was a bright and cheerful day. At least, it was supposed to be that way. However, this was the day of the funeral for one Albus Dumbledore, a man known for his power, wisdom, and leadership. He was well respected and admired, as can be testified by the vast amount of people who were there to remember him on his death bed.

Unlike the man, his death was anything by honourable and noble. He died at the hands of a man he trusted with his life. Fate is quite ironic that way. The people he left behind, especially one Harry James Potter, would avenge him and set the world right. He was the pupil that Dumbledore loved as a grandson. Though they did not see eye to eye on a few things… scratch that… Harry almost hated the man for some of the foolish mistakes that the old coot had made. In the end, it was one of these mistakes that had caused the death of the Headmaster of Hogwarts Wizarding School.

As of right now, Harry is sitting under one of his favorite trees with his best friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. They were talking about small petty things, but Harry had other thoughts on his mind. His recent break up with Ginny Weasley had taken its toll on him as well as exhausts him emotionally to the point of collapsing.

"Hello? Earth to Harry, are you there mate?" Ron asked, wondering what his best friend was thinking about, while keeping an eye out for Lavender Brown, his ex girlfriend. "Huh? That's nice Ron…" Harry replied, not really paying attention. He was thinking about Voldemort's remaining horcruxes and what he may have to do to make sure that they were destroyed.

It was obvious that the snake horcrux would be by Voldemort's side. That meant that there would be three horcruxes that he would have to destroy before confronting the man who had turned his life into a living hell. He would have to look for the person who took the Slytherin locket horcrux, locate the goblet of Hugglepuff, and discover where and what the last horcrux is. Then he would have to-

"Harry!" Ron shouted in his ear, making the black haired teen jump before reflexes kicked in and his wand was pointed at his best friend. "Wow, chill Harry… we just wondered whether you would like to start going now. The Hogwarts express would be here soon to take us home." He said, still looking at Harry's wand wearily.

Taking a deep breath and putting his wand back into his robes, Harry nodded and got up, offering a hand to his two friends to help them up. Starting on the road towards the Hogwarts gates, Harry resumed his thinking about what to do from now on. It was true that he wasn't going to bring Ron and Hermione along no matter what they say, but that doesn't mean that he liked it.

There weren't any clues as to how Harry was to track down the remaining horcruxes. This was driving Harry nuts, as he felt truly hopeless for the first time in his life. Taking a leaf out of Hermione's book, he decided that the best thing to do was to analyze the situation and think things thoroughly.

'What do I have to analyze though?' Harry thought to himself before the answer came to him surprisingly easily. 'My past and experiences with Dumbledore.' However, he couldn't remember anything that could help him now that happened during his recent "lessons" with Dumbledore. Besides, thinking about it just makes Harry angrier about why he trusted Snape so much. It was then that he decided to think back to all the times that he had seen Dumbledore.

He was now in Hogsmade station and his friends were giving him the space that they knew that he needed to think. Going back to the first year, he remembered the time when he met in front of the mirror that showed him of his family. Despite something having to do with socks, Harry couldn't really think of anything that could help him. His memory might have been a bit fuzzy anyways. He was overwhelmed at the time by magic, from goblins to trolls, wands to potions, moving pictures to talking portraits…

"That's it!" Harry exclaimed while smacking himself on the head. It was so obvious; he can talk to the portrait of Dumbledore and ask for help and advice from his copy. Ron and Hermione were now looking at him rather strangely as if wondering about Harry's sanity. "You guys go ahead, I'll catch up." He said to his best friends since first year before turning abruptly and started towards the school again.

Ignoring the shouts from his friends for him to go back, Harry broke into a sprint hoping that the enchantments, barriers, and wards hadn't been put up yet to restrict him from going back. Reaching the gates, Harry was dismayed to find that he couldn't cross the doorway while other students were walking out as if nothing had happened. Bracing himself, Harry rammed into the gates and was repelled backwards some feet into the air.

At this point the students were stopping to watch what the "Chosen One" was doing. Some even wondered if he finally snapped at the death of Dumbledore. Strangely, Harry didn't feel any real pain at the loss of his headmaster and mentor in a inhumanly detached way.

Harry ignored the looks he was getting and walked back towards the gates stopping just outside it and placed a hand upon the magical barrier. He had remembered feeling something like this before and a thought struck him.

Going away into the forbidden forest (the part outside of Hogwarts grounds) so that there was no one to see what he was doing, he called out the name that had appeared into his mind. "Dobby," he said, hoping that it would work and that he wouldn't have to shout. Luckily for him, a loud crack and soon the said house elf was right beside him.

"Harry Potter called sir? What can Dobby do for the great Harry Potter?" The elf asked excitedly while bowing repeatedly. "Well, yes. I was wondering if you could do me a favor Dobby?" At this the elf's eyes widened with glee as he nodded enthusiastically. "Whatever I can do I will sir. Harry Potter is a great wizard. Dobby is honoured to be called upon by Harry Potter sir."

Harry cleared his throat a bit at the awkwardness before replying. "Right, well Dobby, I was wondering if you can take me with you into Hogwarts?" With that the elf looked confused and in thought before nodding in a relieved fashion. "That I can sir, but only to the kitchen, all other places are warded against house elf magic. Is that all right?"

"Yes, that would be perfect. Thank you Dobby, you're the best." As soon as those words left his mouth Harry hoped that he would turn back time because Dobby's eyes widened further if possible and tears of joy welled up in his eyes. "Harry Potter call Dobby the best, Harry Potter is too kind to Dobby sir. It is every house elf's dream to be called the best by their masters."

He then continued to hug Harry and sobbed onto his robes. Feeling awkward again, Harry patted Dobby's back before the emotional house elf calmed down enough to work his magic. "Dobby must warn Harry Potter though. It is painful travel for humans to teleport by house elf magic."

"It's all right Dobby, a little pain doesn't really bother me. I'm rather used to it." Harry reassured Dobby and the house elf gave a small nod. Then, without any words, Dobby too Harry's hand and nothing seemed to happen for a while before…

Pain

Excruciating Pain

Harry felt as though he was under the cruciatus again before it was all gone in a flash. Harry opened his eyes wondering when he had closed them and looked around. Sure enough, this was the Hogwarts kitchen. Harry shook his head a little bit before looking a Dobby who was gazing at him with a worried glance.

"I'm all right Dobby," Harry said though it wasn't exactly the truth. "Thanks for your help, I have to go now. I'll hopefully see you in the future again Dobby." With that said, Harry left a confused house elf and began his trip to the Headmaster's… ahem… Headmistress's office.

* * *

End First Chapter 

A/N: I know it's kind of short and I'll update this one soon. I need people to tell me whom they want in the multiship (no guys, only girls) with Harry and I'll try to make it happen.

Please review and tell me what you think. The next chapter should be before next Sunday.

U-T signing off…


	2. Hogwarts, Help Me

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, bits of other shows and books are involved such as Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Full Metal Alchemist (not enough to actually make it a crossover).

Arthur's Note: Wow, 8 reviews in one chapter, I never thought I could do that really, but I guess I don't really know anything about myself after all. It does seem to be better than my last Harry Potter story though. It's also because of this that I'm updating right now instead of next week (which I will do another update). I'm glad to see that people like it. To be honest, I didn't like the first chapter much, it was dull and I'm sorry to say that there would be at least 2 more boring chapters (not necessarily in the beginning) so I can set things up right. I had planned to make the first chapter longer, to compensate, I'm giving you guys this update right now, hope that makes everyone happy. I'll skip the review answers until the end, so on to the story for now.

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspects of Harry Potter other than perhaps the actual books that are published. This is written for fun and definitely not profit.

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Two:**

**Hogwarts, Help Me**

From last time:

Harry felt as though he was under the cruciatus again before it was all gone in a flash. Harry opened his eyes wondering when he had closed them and looked around. Sure enough, this was the Hogwarts kitchen. Harry shook his head a little bit before looking a Dobby who was gazing at him with a worried glance.

"I'm all right Dobby," Harry said though it wasn't exactly the truth. "Thanks for your help, I have to go now. I'll hopefully see you in the future again Dobby." With that said, Harry left a confused house elf and began his trip to the Headmaster's… ahem… Headmistress's office.

* * *

Deciding to actually think before taking any action, Harry unshrunk his trunk that he had in his pants pocket and took out his father's old invisibility cloak and the Marauder's map. He was then able to cloak himself just as professor McGonagall strode past, apparently distressed about something.

'This must be my lucky day,' Harry thought as he looked at his mp and saw that there wasn't anyone between him and Dumbledore's old office, nor was there anyone in the office. Taking off at a dash, Harry failed to see the assembly of teachers and staff at the entrance hall who were beginning to depart towards the nearby village with a certain green skull above it.

The trip wasn't anything exciting or special, but he had a feeling of apprehension over him as if he was given a potion similar to the Felix Felicis. Remembering hidden passageways and trick stairs, Harry made it to the stone gargoyle in about just five minutes. Opening his mouth to start guessing the passwords, Harry was surprised to see the gargoyle smirking at him as if it knew something that he didn't.

"Ugh… Lemon Drop?" Harry guessed, hoping that McGonagall would have used Dumbledore's favourite sweet to honor his memory in some twisted way. Seeing that this didn't work, he went through every sweet that he knew, muggle and magical alike. Getting frustrated, Harry felt something snapping inside of him and that apprehension Felix feeling took him over again.

Feeling like talking to the gargoyle, Harry followed his instincts and asked a question that had been bothering him for a while now, or rather, a series of questions. "Are you alive or are you just an enchanted piece of stone?" The gargoyle took to life as though the password was given but soon looked indignant and sneered at Harry. 'How very Snape-like of you.' Harry though bitterly as he waited for the stone statue's answer.

Giving what Harry thought was a kind of squawk; the gargoyle's eyes turned red and spoke in a painful sounding voice. "Little Non-Acolyte talk big to mighty Ke'Tha. Me live, me serve." It screeched, apparently offended. Somewhat confused, Harry decided to let this entire conversation go with his instincts. "I'm sorry, little non what?"

"Light user! Be gone!" It screeched, staying in a somewhat fixed manner. Deciding on another approach, Harry spoke again. "Who do you serve?" The stone creature looked at Harry in disbelief before becoming confused. "White skull." It replied, nodding approvingly to himself. Still not understanding anything so far, Harry gave up and just asked one thing.

"Can you let me through please Ke'Tha?" He asked, trying to show respect though he would much rather just blast the damn thing. When the stone guard didn't move, Harry thought that perhaps it was thinking or judging him, but it turns out that it returned to its original state and was ignoring him.

Feeling anger towards the sentry, Harry drew his wand and pointed it as the gargoyle. "I guess I'll have to let myself through." He said, about to use the reductor curse. What happened next was something that he didn't expect. "Arg! Protect the crypt!" It shouted before its rocklike skin was shred to reveal a dark blue and gray skin. Its eyes took on a very light blue colour with red tinges on the sides.

Before Harry could recover from his surprise, it took flight and threw a sickly green blade at him. Dodging at the last second, Harry began to fire multiple curses and hexes at the creature, hoping to stop it. The only thing that seemed to have any effect was the reductor curse. When the red light impacted, the gargoyle screeched in pain before charging at Harry to strike with its front claws.

The very moment that he was face to face with Ke'Tha, he fired three more reductors right into the gargoyle's face and two more in the chest. The gargoyle was thrown backwards before throwing another green blade, which headed towards Harry's chest at an amazing speed. Barely having the time to dodge, Harry shift to keep his heart from being damaged…

"AAARRRGGGHHHH!" Harry screamed as the long attack hit his shoulder… and severed his entire right arm. It wasn't over yet as a faint trace of the end of the blade cut his right eye, making Harry see nothing but the colour red in that eye. The force was so strong that felt his entire body smash through the wall behind him.

Enraged, Harry got up amongst the falling debris aiming his wand at where he thought the gargoyle was. Going back towards the entrance of his destination, Harry saw that the gargoyle had reverted into his old form. Confused, Harry examined the creature that was now no longer blocking his way with his one good eye.

There appeared to be some kind of barrier around it and Harry thought that this was a defense position before confirming it by seeing Ke'Tha starting to heal. The tears and cracks in its skin were regenerating. Swearing softly, Harry headed towards the spiral staircase before falling onto his knees.

Harry began to feel light headed as he felt his heart rate slowing. It was then that he felt the cliché-ish replay of his entire life. He began to think of everything until he remembered the prophecy. 'No!' Harry thought, 'I can't die like this… I'm not going to die like this!'

Finding the renewed strength, Harry started towards Dumbledore's old office again. Harry knew that he wasn't going to die. Though this situation gave him another memory as well that he had missed before… from his second year…

FLASHBACK (DIRECT QUOTE FROM BOOK)

Dumbledore had not taken his bright blue eyes off Lucius Malfoy's cold gray ones.

"However," said Dumbledore, speaking very slowly and clearly, so that none of them could miss a word, "you will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

END FLASHBACK

It was with this thought in mind that Harry arrived outside the door to the office. As he opened the door while wincing slightly from his major wounds, he heard a screech from below him. It seemed that the gargoyle was back for some more fun. Quickly deciding that he's in no condition to fight, he burst through the door and several portraits awoke with the noise, including the man that had caused him so much pain but he had forgive.

"Professor Dumbledore sir," Harry said, seeing Dumbledore's surprised face at his current state. 'Must not be an everyday sight to see the boy-who-lived in such a state.' Harry thought bitterly. "Professor, I need Hogwart's help…"

If the old professor had been surprised before, it was nothing compared to the look that he wore. This remained for a couple of minutes as Harry closed the door just in time to stop Ke'Tha. As Harry turned back towards his old mentor, he saw an amplified amount of twinkling light from Dumbledore's eyes as he broke out into a wide knowing grin with a bit of maliciousness that Harry had only seen in Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort before…

End second chapter.

A/N: There, I think that should do for now. I like this chapter much more than the first, I hope it's better for everyone. I'd also like to thank for everyone who've reviewed. It's because of those reviews that I'm updating early.

Review responses/acknowledgements.

Amscray: Thanks for the review, you shouldn't thank me for making Harry dump Ginny, you should thank God that J.K Rowling (sp?) came to her senses and make Harry break up with her near the end of the sixth book.

Adam: Thanks for the time you took to review, you don't have to wait anymore… as you can see…

shadow of the black abyss: Here it is.

Fredryck: Yes, Harry is going to become somewhat like Arthas, but you should all know that this is a story inspired by WarCraft three and is not exactly the same. It's not going to be the same. I'm going to change a lot of things but it's mainly the same thing. I'll give you a hint though, Dumbledore's coming back to life in another form, just like a certain "accomplice" of Arthas… any ways, thank you for your review.

AzureSky123: Harry's going to become somewhat like Arthas (read above) and I'm definitely giving him Frostmourne (in next chapter). However, he might not be necessarily dark and he's not just going to sit around and take shit from the dreadlords either. Thanks for your review.

Deadwilder: Thanks. Hope you like this chapter.

Potterfanforever: I'll keep what you said in mind, though I might still put Tonks in if people want her. But I'm glad that you agree with the black sisters though.

gold viper: Wow, you want more than four girls? Sure I guess, but I'll have to see what other people think about that, I don't want to come across as a pervert. I only want multiship because it's harder to write in my opinion. I do plan to make things permanent (relationships) but marriage may not come in this book (remember, it's a series) but there may be lemons if people want them and I can try to write them.

To all those who voted for pairings and/or are going to vote, please vote when you are signed in. That way people won't think that I counterfeited votes. However, I'm going to count this chapter's votes since I didn't say anything about it before.

Pairing standings so far (if you vote for "anyone is fine" then everyone gets a vote, if you vote that you don't want someone, that'll be minus one for that person):

Narcissa Black: 3

Bellatrix Black: 3

Fleur Delacour: 2

N. Tonks: 1

Patil Twins (I'm guessing this is what people mean by Padma or is it just her?): 2

Gabrielle Delacour (age modified): 2

I think that should be all. Please tell me if I forgot someone. There isn't going to be any romance for a while so the voting can go on for a while. I urge everyone who reads to participate because I need the people soon. Also I would like views on what people think about side pairings. Oh, did I mention that I'm bringing Sirius Black back as well? I'm going to do that unless a LOT of people don't want that. (Hint: Dumbledore, Harry, Sirius, maybe Lupin, will all become Warcraft heroes with special abilities) Just so everyone knows I do not like Hermione and Ron much, they may be against Harry.

That should be all, thanks to everyone who reviewed and please vote on the pairings and tell me what kind of talents, weapons, skills, and such you want Harry to have. I've got some ideas already though. Harry's new arm and eye are examples. This may become a super Harry but just wait until you see the equivalents of Archimonde and Stormrage. I also need people to tell me the names of the original Heroes from the game, like, I forgot the name of the pit lord that was killed by Hellscream

For those who do not know anything about the game, you're not going to miss much as I'll make it easy to understand without Warcraft terms.

That's about it for now, until next time, bye!

U-T signing off…


	3. Unarmed And Dangerous

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, bits of other shows and books are involved such as Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Full Metal Alchemist (not enough to actually make it a crossover).

Arthur's Note: Ok, let me see here… (Counts fingers) that's 19 reviews in one chapter! Wow, I never thought that I could do something like this, but then again, this may get my head swelled up so much that I start writing worse (takes out a pin and deflates his head). There, that is much better. I'm glad to see that people reviewing and putting in their thoughts and suggestions. I think I'm going to end up liking this chapter too except for the fact that about half of it would be more background build up for Harry as the character and for those who don't know much about the Warcraft world (see how I didn't put world of Warcraft there?). I'll skip the more news and such for after the story because if anyone reading this is like me, they hate notes in the beginning and probably ignores it. So on to the story for now.

**IMPORTANT NOTICE: **I don't know about anyone else, but it has been brought to my attention that some people don't seem to get that Harry is talking to Dumbledore's **Portrait** at the moment. I thought I was clear before so I want this to be clear right now. Also, I want people who don't know anything about Warcraft to relax because doesn't know anything either, you'll understand the same time that he does when he hears explanation(s).

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspects of Harry Potter other than perhaps the actual books that are published. This is written for fun and definitely not profit. I also do not own anything relating to Warcraft. Anything here you recognize, I do not own it, and otherwise, it's probably my innovation or invention.

* * *

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Three:**

Unarmed and Dangerous

* * *

From last chapter… 

If the old professor had been surprised before, it was nothing compared to the look that he wore. This remained for a couple of minutes as Harry closed the door just in time to stop Ke'Tha. As Harry turned back towards his old mentor, he saw an amplified amount of twinkling light from Dumbledore's eyes as he broke out into a wide knowing grin with a bit of maliciousness that Harry had only seen in Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort before…

* * *

Feeling slightly uncomfortable with the way that his old mentor was looking at him, he was too distracted (along with the pain from his lack of a right arm and eye) to notice that the roof of the office was opening up and the furniture in the office were slowly but surely moving away from Harry. 

"I never thought I'd live to see the day that you would say those very words in this very office Harry." Dumbledore said, eyes shining brighter than ever and tears rolling down his wizened cheeks. Resisting the urge to tell the former headmaster that he was already dead, Harry just nodded before finally beginning to look around him and realize that something was going to happen. Something that would change just about everything he knew about the world.

Looking about him, Harry noticed that there was strange writing on the ground beneath him. The biggest character was right under his feet while smaller characters spread about forming eight lines of characters and symbols that are spaced out equally. Kneeling down, he examined what he thought was some sort of ritual circle. The eight lines seem to come to life and stood erected forming Harry in some sort of cage.

Looking at Dumbledore, who gave him a reassuring smile, Harry cursed those twinkling eyes of his with a passion for what must have been the hundredth time. At this time, he saw that four lines turned blue while the other four turned red. The red lines began to revolve counterclockwise while the blue ones moved in the other direction slowly increasing speed, making Harry somewhat nauseous.

"What's going on?" Harry shouted over the wind that had somehow picked up due to the ritual to an eagerly watching Dumbledore. Likewise, the other portraits seemed to be paying a lot of attention to him as well. Smiling mysteriously in return, Dumbledore gestured for him to be quiet with a finger pressed against his own mouth.

Having a bad feeling about this, Harry put himself into a futile defensive position with his remaining arm gripping his wand tightly and positioned in front of his chest. Just as he crouched down a little, the lines of blue and red characters seemed to grow and extend through the hole in the ceiling. Still confused as to what was going on, his eyes widened a little upon seeing a yellow light that seem to approach him from the endless void above him. Bracing himself, he felt, or rather, saw the pillar of yellow light engulf him, as he really couldn't feel anything.

Before barely being able to process that though, Harry felt the affects of the light. It was as if the gravity suddenly multiplied by ten, and then ten again, and such. He wondered why he didn't collapse already when he looked down at his body to see himself not moving an inch (he found that he could only move his eyes, his head was immobile). It was like he was frozen still, his body unable to move even if it was an exterior force that was trying to make him budge.

Soon Harry began to worry about something else as sparks of static electricity began to spring up from the floor beneath him. Moving around Harry with snake like movements, the sparks began to form into chains of lightning. Without another second spared, three chains (for that's how many that were formed) struck at him. Relieved that his arm was somewhat blocking the path to where his heart is, he was horror struck to see that the chain aiming for his heart phased through his arm and struck right where what some people called the "most vital organ of the human body" was.

He didn't have time to feel the pain before another struck between his eyes and into his brain and the final one striking his scar. Feeling a pain that was like fire burning his heart, ice freezing his brain, and thunder striking his scar, Harry wanted to collapse onto the floor and just die, it was too much pain.

He didn't notice the yellow light turning into various different colours, or the same happening to the character lines and the giant symbol underneath him. What he noticed was a paling Dumbledore who looked the same way he looked just before Severus Snape had killed him. He looked like something was terribly wrong and was desperate to do something to help. He couldn't do anything though, as a flash of blazing white light signified that something big, well, bigger than what was already happening was about to take place.

The chain of lightning connected to Harry's heart began turning gold from the tip attached to him and was slowly spreading out like a virus. A couple of seconds later the entire chain was turned gold and stretched to touch the still revolving character lines (now white and black). Immediately upon interaction the white lines began to turn to the same colour of gold in a similar fashion as the chain before.

As Harry watched the gold ascending to the top, he saw that the chain from his head began to change to a silver colour. The same happened with the black lines this time turning into the same silver colour. Finally when both sets of character line were changed, a head splitting pain erupted from his scar much worse than anything Voldemort could do. In his mind's eye, he could see Voldemort falling down in his throne room and writhing on the floor. Instead of turning colours like the other two, this third chain began to change from the lightning like substance that it was made from into a thick flow of blood. Also, this chain instead connected to the middle of the character beneath his feet.

Soon, instead of being bathed in the once yellow light (now a shade of pink of all colours), Harry was swimming in what appears to be his own blood. He was contained in a cylinder of blood with silver and gold bars surrounding him. The pressure then increased by hundred folds. For lack of a better term, Harry felt that he was somehow imploding. Everything seemed to turn into fire and was sucked into his left palm. In another flash of light (though there was no such thing as a black light, or was there?), the room was filled with smoke.

* * *

A sudden gust of wind from the open window began to clear everything up. Dumbledore sat in his painted chair looking as white as a ghost and mouth hanging open. 'Never would I have imagined…' He began to think, still trying to see through the remaining smoke and surprisingly, flashes of electricity. 'He… so much power… and the will…' After what had happened, Dumbledore couldn't think straight. 

Harry, at the mean time, began to feel cold. It appears that just about all of his cloths were burned off except for (thankfully) his brooms and snitches boxers. Never had he loved that particular piece of clothing so much considering that Ron nearly laughed his head off when he saw Harry's Christmas present from Dobby this year. Shivering a little, Harry brought his arms around and tried to rub some warmth into them. His eyes widened when he remembered something. 'Wait a minute… two arms?' Harry though, looking down at himself. Sure enough, there, covering the right portion of his chest was some sort of breastplate connected to a shoulder piece of armour, which, in turn, was attached to his new arm. The entire piece was made out of platinum

That wasn't what really intrigued him though. There were various gold, silver, and runic markings on his new arm. Also, in his new metallic palm, there was what appeared to be a ruby right in the middle, though it didn't look like it was there for no reason. Checking his other arm, he saw that there was something weird about that too. From his wrist to his elbow, there were the same characters (though very faint) that were once on the floor, making his arm look like a gold and silver zebra. All of the characters were connected to the inside of his left palm, which now bore the once giant character underneath him. In the background of this character was the yin-yang symbol.

Looking out with one eye, Harry closely examined his more organic arm to see that the characters were slightly bleeding. Getting up, Harry noticed two things, one, everything seemed to be smaller to him, or rather, shorter than him. The other… 'Hey, how come my field of vision changed?'

Turning to look at Dumbledore, he heard gasps from the occupants of the other portraits. "Mind telling me what's going on old man?" He said coldly, surprised at his tone and voice. He was bitter at having to have suffered through so much pain despite his new arms and eye. Dumbledore seemed to have snapped out of his stupor and pulled out what seemed like a wand from his drawn pockets. Pointing at Harry, he muttered a spell, which caused Harry to scowl and duck. He didn't need to do so though as the spell rather hit the portrait and what appeared to be an image of Dumbledore stepped out of his painting.

Harry looked on wide-eyed only to regain his trail of though when Dumbledore turned to look at him. "That was most unexpected Harry." He said, looking Harry over. "No shit Sherlock!" Harry snapped, still bitter about what he had gone through. Dumbledore frowned in thought (Harry was sure it didn't have anything to do with his choice of vocabulary, and if it was about it, he didn't give a damn). Twirling his wand, Dumbledore once again muttered under his breath and soon his left arm, chest and both legs were bandaged up. Harry was surprised that he didn't feel the wounds before.

Looking around for his own wand, Harry only saw a small pile of ashes that were covering a small red feather. 'Aw damn,' Harry thought, 'now I have to get a new one, someone better explain things to me NOW!' With that thought, Harry looked back at Dumbledore for him to do something. After about five minutes, he conjured up a large mirror for Harry to examine himself. Harry bit back a gasp as he took in his appearance.

Other than his two arms and his eye, he didn't really expect anything else to change. Of course, there was a not-too-small scar over his right eye, but that was expected. There, staring back at him was a youthful looking 6 foot 7 man with jet-black hair that reached to the small of his back. His bangs at the front reached to about his shoulders. His right eye was the exactly same as his other eye but it seemed to pulse with magic. His arms were the same as he saw right after the incident, but his chest was what shocked him the most. He had been somewhat scrawny before, though with plenty of muscles. Now, he was lean and muscular. It wasn't like one of those muscle-man types of figures though, as his body wasn't exactly broad in anyway.

It reminded him of one of those perfect ninja type characters and with his bandages, he felt more like some kind of martial artist. Down at his abs, he was disappointed to see no six-pack, though he didn't mind. The area was flat and appeared to be holding a lot of strength underneath the skin. However, once he felt his abs with his hands, he could actually feel a quite noticeable six-pack. Looking closer, it seems that the lines that were supposed to show off his newly found muscles were just faint. It was probably physically impossible for his abs to look one way and feel another, but hey, this was the magic he was talking about. His legs had seemed to have gotten longer too and were very well proportioned to the rest of his body.

Subconsciously conjuring another roll of bandages, he worked on binding his hair behind into a ponytail (this of Ray form beyblades). It was then that he noticed the last change of his body. Once he was finished putting his hair in a way that he liked it, a medium sized spear head topped off the tip of his hair. It, just like everything else it seems these days, was covered with runic markings.

Finally, after waiting for Harry to finish, Dumbledore began to explain things to him. "Harry," he began, not really knowing how to start, "what just happened was… how do I say this, an ascension or upgrade maybe? That circle that you were just in, that was three ritual circles bounded within a seal of power. The first, out of red characters, was a healing and regeneration ritual circle, used for living thing to recover. The second blue circle was an awakening, ascension, and gift ring, unlocking all powers, curses, and such while also taking you to the best you can be without training. This means this would have been your body naturally should you have been raised in the best possible conditions. Also, this appears to have given you quite some interesting appendages."

"The final was a shamanic seal, the character on your left palm there. It was supposed to transfer some of your energy to me…" Here, Dumbledore raised a hand to stop Harry from making an outburst about him being selfish and "miserable old men". "I needed that energy to get out of my portrait into this form now." He explained, somewhat relieved that his former student calmed down a little. "What shocks me most of all however, is that you retaliated against the circles." At Harry's blank look, Dumbledore signed inwardly not wanting to actually explain what he meant. 'This was supposed to be so much easier.' He thought bitterly.

"Any ritual circle has a great amount of power which urges and works together with the user's power to bring about the results intended for the circle. However, when the circle tried to contact and meld with your own power, something… curious (Harry shuddered at the word remembering the last thing someone said was "curious" about him, or rather, his wand). Your body and power seemed to have thought of this intruding power as a threat and while other people had experienced this too before, your experience was different. Your power was greater than the combined bands and with a sense rebellion, your power clashed with that of the circles, fighting for dominance instead of merging peacefully. In the end, you took the power of the circles as your own, subduing a type of magic nobody was able to perfectly perform for centuries."

Harry took a deep breath as he took all this in. He was confused, if he was so powerful, how come he had so much trouble with basic magic before? As if sensing his inner turmoil, Dumbledore spoke again. "Your power, once suppressed along with other things, was released with the full power of the second ritual. Now you should have the ability to regenerate and heat at rapid speeds, unlocking and helping other people bring about their full power, and some other skills especially those related to shamanism."

Looking at the clock, Harry realized that he had only spent about ten minutes in the office so far. 'Time must not move very fast when you're suffering.' He thought bitterly. "What about this other arm and my eye professor?" Harry asked, wanting to just go… ok, so maybe he didn't want to go back to his "home"… but he still wanted to go to somewhere to rest. "Those, Harry, are the best results that you could have hoped for from the ritual. The eye is called the Eye of Erised, taken after the Mirror of Erised. This eye allows you to see through any illusion, enchantment, invisibility cloaks, and the like. Also, it will show you a target's deepest desires and as you use your eye more and more, you will be able to create illusions to show your target those desires. Should you be able to break past the boundaries of your eyes, you will unlock the Ten Mirrored Eye, and then the Eye of a Hundred Mirrors, and so on. The greatest eye of the kind ever known was the Ten Thousandth-Mirror eye unlocked by Merlin himself."

"Each of those eyes contains the abilities of various magic mirrors, therefore the more you can unlock, the better." Dumbledore finished, letting Harry take all of this in. The latter did do just what the former gave him time to. Harry thought about this for a while, knowing for sure that this would help with the defeat of Voldemort. Feeling ecstatic about his new powers, he looked at Dumbledore with his own version of twinkling eyes (he'd be damned if he did that knowingly) and pressed on with his questions. "What about the arm?" He asked, wondering what it would allow him to do.

Dumbledore sweat dropped at the over zealousness of his former student and his seemingly instant mood swing. "That is something just as great as your eye. It is not a mechanical arm as you might assume. Rather, it is a shell for the real arm within. It is called the Un-Arm. Rather than a limb, flesh, blood, and the sort, the Un-Arm is a void. Should its shell ever crack (which I highly doubt) beyond repair, for it is self-repairing metal, then everything around you shall be sucked into an endless void until you either get another shell somehow or get pulled into the void your self. It is only your magic that is making it move right now, other than your nerves. That ruby is the gate to a tunnel in your arm. There are two gates in this tunnel. Should you open both gates, your arm would become like a vacuum and draw in any sized items, objects, and such. However, if you pull in a living being, then he or she can attack you from the inside, killing you both. Should you open only the inner gate, a red light will shoot form the ruby and scan whatever opponent you have. Once it is done (it only takes a second and is stored in your memory unless you choose for remove it), your arm shell can be morphed into a form based on the enemy and you would be able to use his or her powers for yourself. Lastly, should you touch the enemy without opening either gate, you would be able to silently scan and copy similarly as with before, except this time it's more about stealth."

Dumbledore took a deep breath as he finished. Harry eagerly took everything in so as to know his weapons in the future. "And how to I use them sir?" Dumbledore thought for a while before answering. "You should already be able to use it without a second though." Concentrating a little, Harry felt himself open the inner gate of the Un-Arm and scan Fawks and the spirit Dumbledore. Concentrating, Harry saw his metallic arm turn red and the ruby instead be replaced by a sapphire. Despite the difference, he could still feel the two gates, opening the inner gate only, he saw a small drizzle of water leak out from the jewel.

'Phoenix tears!' Harry thought excitedly, as he then tried with both gates open. It was then that he heard a melody that he had only heard few times before. It was the Phoenix song! Feeling rejuvenated, he concentrated on making his arm morph based on the scan of Dumbledore. Almost immediately, his arm became translucent like a ghost. Trying to touch the wall, he was pleasantly surprised to see his arm go through the wall of stone. Reverting back to his normal arm, he returned his attention back to Dumbledore to find him smiling warmly at him.

"I'm glad to see that you're putting your arm to good use." He said, maintaining his thousand-watt twinkling in his eyes. Rolling his own eyes, Harry wondered if there was anything left for him here. "So… am I done now sir?" He asked, wondering if this was everything, though he definitely wasn't disappointed. "There is much more in store for you Harry," Dumbledore said, smiling even more.

"But first, we need to go up there," he continued, pointing to the hole in the ceiling. Before Harry could say anything else, he felt Dumbledore grip his left shoulder and pull him upwards along with him. Once into the tunnel, Dumbledore directed Harry onto a landing off to the right. "Since when can ghosts touch humans?" He asked, rather confused and suspicious at Dumbledore. "Since they get their power form you." He replied, making Harry blink at the hidden compliment.

Leaving what Dumbledore said for later reference, Harry looked about him only to see darkness. A soft "lumos" from Dumbledore showed Harry an ancient looking door. Gesturing for Harry to go through, Dumbledore quickly found a torch and lit it. Harry opened the heavy looking door with relative ease and stepped into a circular looking room that reeked of death, decay, and blood.

Looking around him, Harry saw four suits of armour wielding clubs. However, the metal used to make them seemed to be some sort of black metal and the plates were outlined with dark blue. Also, instead metal leg armour, they seemed to be united with a long plated skirt-like piece. Harry couldn't see any boots, and wondered how they stayed up. Dumbledore chose that time to talk. "Sorry Harry, but you have to do this by yourself."

Harry started to wonder what he meant before the huge doors snapped back into place and the room he was in lit up all of a sudden. It was then that Harry saw one of the most disgusting sights he had ever saw. Mountains of corpses lay against the circular walls, which were spilled with blood and flesh. Then, a light bluish gas entered the room and into the four suits of armour, animating them on contact. The metal soldiers began to advance on Harry.

He did the first thing that came to his mind, opening the first gate of the Un-Arm; he scanned one of his enemies and somehow knew that they were called Death Reverents. Putting aside the question of how he knew what they were called later, he concentrated until his arm turned black and blue with a diamond in his palm. Feeling only one gate, he opened it and a white light shot out. Grinning, Harry shot one of the suits of armour only to see that it had no affect. Scowling, Harry immediately ducked three swings simultaneously but one hit him of his left shin.

The Reverents stopped a moment and Harry thought they were communicating amongst themselves to come up with a plan about how to kill him. They were strong, but not very fast. Turning their backs on Harry, they seemed to focus their energies and shot four lights that were the same as Harry's before, but at four corpses. Harry watched in morbid fascination as each corpse began to twitch and turn before two skeletons for each dead body formed. Each was armed with a white scimitar and a black shield. It wasn't logical for two skeletons to come out of once corpse, but Harry had more pressing matters to address right now.

Coming up with an idea, Harry concentrated until the Fawks-arm reappeared. Positioning his arm like a gun, Harry fired off a wave of the Phoenix song. It worked just as he thought. The skeletons immediately shattered and one Reverent even died… well… as close to dying as a suit of armour can be. The remaining seemed to be only in pain. Now knowing what to do, Harry brought back his Reverent-arm and shot off as many beams as he could consecutively hitting around ten corpses. His small army now stood before him and the Reverents.

Seeing that they were just standing there, Harry decided to give a command. "Attack them!" He shouted, pointing at the Reverents, before falling on the floor in exhaustion. He didn't know that skeleton summoning would take so much out of him. Maybe that was why the Death Reverents only used it once each. He watched with satisfaction as his skeleton warriors swarmed the enemy and even managed to destroy one.

Feeling encouraged by their performance, Harry leapt up into the air and decided to fight the old fashioned way. He brought his normal Un-Arm back and punched as hard as he could at his enemy's helmet. He was overjoyed to find that he didn't feel any pain at all and that the piece of armour cracked before shattering completely. With that, the gas within it leaked out leaving the armour inactive once more. With only one more enemy to fight with, Harry turned to see that only four of his soldiers were left fighting.

There wasn't a need for any worry though, as just a second after Harry turned, all three skeletons struck with their crude weapons and shattered the platted skirt and thus the Reverent itself. Just as Harry was enjoying a moment of peace at least, a shout from outside alerted him before the door burst open and something dark with wings tackled him.

Harry looked down and saw that his assailant was the same person, or rather, creature that took his original arm. Feeling anger at the pain that it caused him; Harry pushed himself away from the gargoyle unknowingly copying it with his new arm. As they stared each other down several feet away, Harry felt his arm changing and look down to see a stone winged arm with a clawed hand. In his palm this time, was an onyx stone. Perhaps it was subconsciously transformed. 'Yes,' Harry thought, 'let my new arm be the cause of his death.' With that, Harry opened his palm aimed like a gun for the millionth time that day and shot three blades of sickly green light that avenged the loss of his original arm.

The battle finally took its toll on Harry as he sank to his knees… he must have used too much of the Un-Arm or something because the exhaustion was getting greater and greater. He could faintly see a flash of silver before fainting into the blissful land of dreams.

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"Ugh," Harry moaned out, opening his eyes. He was apparently on the floor of some room and he had never seen before. Quickly jumping up and going into a defense position, Harry looked around to see the amused expression of one Albus Dumbledore. "Glad to see you're back," he said, smiling jovially, "you've been out for an hour." Nodding a bit, Harry looked around the room to see a blank white room with only a tall stand made out of ivory on a dais. 

"Where am I?" Harry asked, still trying to remember what happened before he fainted. "You're in the hall of the first treasure of Hogwarts." Looking confused, Harry began to remember what happened before. "What happened to my skeleton guys?" He asked. "They shattered after about half an hour after you fainted. Quite impressive, I've never known one to last longer than twenty minutes."

'So they weren't permanent,' Harry though, somewhat glad that he wouldn't be stalked by the walking dead where ever he goes. "What are we doing here?" He asked, looking at the dais and getting up, still unfamiliar with his new height. Dumbledore walked towards the object of his vision as a response and gestured for him to follow. "To get you a perfect weapon." Once getting there, Harry saw that there was a drawing on surface of the stand. It was an outline of a person with various body parts circled, such as the heart, head, hands, and such. Within each circle was a symbol and very small writing underneath it, nothing that Harry can make out though.

"This is a symbolic representation of what makes a weapon deadly or perfect, skill (points at the symbol on the mind), reason (left fist), personal attributes (heart), and much more." Dumbledore said. "Place your hand over the entire depiction, and you will be able to summon the Omnisence, the deadliest, living, most advanced weapon, the loyalist, truest friend and familiar (kind of pet companion for mages), and the complete power of the world. Once summoned, it will take the form of what it feels is most compatible with you such as a bat for a vampire, a wolf for a werewolf and such."

Raising an eyebrow but deciding to play along, Harry placed his left hand on the engraved picture and the moment he touched it a blinding light of multiple colours erupted, painting the room with colours that people have never imagined of before and more. The engraving glowed in similar colours and Harry felt an immense power surge through him and bonding with his magical, life energy, and other power cores. Winds picked up and the room was starting to get chipped by short bursts of electricity. Dumbledore just stood there, with the smile of a very senile old man as nothing could really touch him in the form of a ghost.

Harry suddenly felt an explosion around him but he was sure that none of it hurt him nor was supposed to hurt him. He wondered what he would see, perhaps a dragon of some kind? He thought back to his fourth year. Or maybe it was a griffin. He thought of his house in the school. Getting impatient, he started to try to clear the smoke that followed. He could sense the great power that radiated from the Omnisence. Power that radiated from what was probably going to be his trump card against Voldemort. Power that radiated… from the palm of his hand?

'Oh no…'

'Please no…'

Harry pleaded with fate that it was not what he thought it was with closed eyes. He opened his eyes, looked down at what was in his hand. There it was, it all of it's pink fuzzy glory. 'It is!' Harry thought, not knowing what to feel. 'This has to be a joke!' There, sitting in his hand, something that is supposed to be the most powerful weapon in this plane of existence, the most powerful part of his arsenal against Voldemort…

Harry, one eye twitching while looking at his amused accomplice asked the first thing that came into his mind.

"WHY THE HELL AM I HOLDING A PYGMY PUFF?"

End chapter three

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A/N: WOO! I really like the ending. Tell me what you guys think. I think this is almost double the length of the first chapter, I'm so proud. I originally wanted to get a chapter out yesterday stopping to when Harry gets his arm. As compensation, I wrote a longer chapter. I hope we're even now. I like this chapter more than the first; I just hope it's not too boring for people with all the explanations and such but I really need to set up my story. I'm sorry if you didn't enjoy this chapter. I also hope that I didn't make everything seem to come too fast to Harry. I'm going to be honest this is going to be somewhat a Super Harry, but that might only be in this book before he meets the likes of Thrall and eventually Elune and Archimonde. Those who don't know the game just know that Archimonde is the most powerful hero in the game and Elune is supposed to be a moon goddess (not a unit). I'd like to thank people who've reviewed. I've never been so motivated in my entire life. To be truthful, it's those reviews that are making my write more and faster. Well, hope to see you guys next chapter. 

**IMPORTANT NOTE!**

**Some people seem to think that just because Lupin and Tonks are together and Fleur and Bill are getting married that means that Tonks and Fleur are off limits. That is definitely NOT true. In fact I've already got situations planned that are believable to get them to be with Harry. Those who think that Ginny and Harry were promised to reunite; I've reread the ending part. It doesn't say anywhere that Harry would come back to be with Ginny in those exact words. It might be implied, but people change! No offence to anyone, I just don't like it when people put restraints on fanfics telling what an author can or cannot do. It's nothing personal to anyone really. Thank you for reading.

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**_Review responses/acknowledgements._**

**Armageddon Unleashed**: Thank you for your review and participation. I think I answered your question above. However, if you didn't read it, I'm going to say it again, in the last chapter, Harry was talking to Dumbledore's portrait. In this chapter (after a while) Dumbledore got out of his portrait to become semi-ghost like with the power he got from Harry.

**Hijlpotter**: Thanks for taking the time to review; I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

**Dragonchick**: I appreciate your review and support. If you get the time, please sign on and vote again so I can reassure people if there are thoughts of people rigging the votes through anonymous reviews. In the mean time, I'll count your vote in case you didn't know that anonymous votes were not going to be counted.

**Gryffindors**: Please don't worry. As I've said before, Harry doesn't know anything either, the only difference between people who do and don't know the game is that maybe they can picture characters better, other than that, I'll make sure to explain things. If you're confused, you can always ask through a review. Thank you for your review and hope you liked this chapter.

**Danielc**: Your vote has been accounted for. Hope this story is enjoyable so far.

**shadow of the black abyss**: Thank you. I agree with you totally. I think that people should write whatever pairings they like despite their situations in the original series. I'm not too sure about how to get Tonks with Harry but I have ideas, and I'm pretty sure you'll like how I get Fleur with Harry. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. Hope you liked this chapter despite the boring background building. I tried to make up for it in the end.

**Deadwilder**: Lol. I really liked your review. In a way, that's exactly what I'm going to do with Bill's wedding. I got it all planned out. I'm pretty sure you'll love it. I'll give you a couple of hints about that part. There's going to be a pretty cool battle (not too much though I think) and Harry's going to be the one walking away with the bride. Another hint if you know Warcraft three is remember what happened to Hellscream when he and his orcs became chaos orcs.

**AzureSky123**: Thanks for your encouraging review. It's quite all right if you forgot things about the game. It's not like I remember either. I've already decided on Harry's weapons though, sorry. The pygmy puff is going to kick ass! He he he… The items you suggested are good ones but most of them are one-time uses. I'm going to have Harry read the tome of intelligence instead of just holding it and teach him necromancy and summoning. I don't know that that human ability you're talking about, maybe it would help if you tell me which hero had the ability (arch mage, paladin, or mountain king?) and I forgot what immolation was sorry. If you want to know more about what I'm going to do with Harry in terms of hero abilities, e-mail me separately and I'll tell you. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter.

**Yenom**: Your vote has been accounted for. Thanks for helping to decide the pairings.

**the DragonBard**: Please read what I put to the top. It's nothing personal. I hope I expressed my views enough though you are entitled to yours as well. Thanks for your review.

**Amscray**: Wow… that is a confusing review. I got your votes down but other than that… Don't worry; Sirius is going to be mature if he comes back. I might not return Harry to school though, at least as a student (hint, hint) and we'll have to see about that. Thanks for the time you take to review. Though your vote only counts once though, sorry.

**HPFan5282**: Thank you for your input and support. I'm going to make this a Harem story, and I'm thinking about maybe 7 people since most voters seem to want just about everyone suggested. I'm going to make this a Ron/Hermione against Harry though but in a different way. It's not going to be like those "suddenly against him/stab him behind the back/I thought you were my friends" kind of stories. Harry's going against the two, but the same way that friends go against one another. They're forced to fight because they're on different sides and that kind of thing. Despite what I decide in the end, I'm definitely going to try my hardest to make it believable.

**Timegazer**: I like the way you think, I'm going to count your vote twice because of the enthusiasm and for leaving your e-mail as proof that it is you voting. Hope you liked this chapter.

**gold viper**: I can't count your votes again, sorry. Thanks for clearing your vote up as I now have a Padma only voting choice. It is going to get serious as in marriage in later books, but I'm not sure too much about children until maybe an epilogue or near the very end, unless you want to risk the chance of using Harry's children being used against Harry? Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and please tell me if there's anything you would like to see later as well.

**Makotochi**: Thanks for your votes. Hope you liked this chapter. If you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to tell me them.

**Surfer Tsunamiya**: Thanks for your review and I'm glad that you like it. Hopefully you liked this chapter too.

**Grookill**: Wow, that's a very well thought review. I've taken everything you've said into account and I'll try to make things enjoyable for you to read. To be honest, I don't remember Daphne and Susan much either (in terms of what they look like) but I'll do it if people really want me to. Harry isn't going to be necessarily Dark, but you'll have to see what I mean as we go on with the story. Look above if you want my views on Harry against his friends, (in one of the other review responses). If you have any other suggestions, I'll be more than happy to listen. Thank you for your review and I hope you enjoy everything so far.

**Jarvey**: Short and straight to the point, I like that. Thanks for the vote.

(wow that was a lot)

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**IMPORTANT NOTE!**

To all those who voted for pairings and/or are going to vote, please vote when you are signed in. That way people won't think that I counterfeited votes. However, I'm going to count this chapter's votes since I didn't say anything about it before.

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**Pairing standings **so far (if you vote for "anyone is fine" then everyone gets a vote, if you vote that you don't want someone, that'll be minus one for that person): 

Narcissa Black: 12

Bellatrix Black: 14

Fleur Delacour: 12

N. Tonks: 14

Patil Twins (I'm guessing this is what people mean by Padma or is it just her?): 11

Gabrielle Delacour (age modified): 6

Padma Patil: 6

Daphne Greengrass: 7

Pansy Parkinson: 5

Hannah Abbot: 4

Susan Bones: 5

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I think that should be all. Please tell me if I forgot someone. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and please vote on the pairings. 

That's about it for now, until next time, bye!

U-T signing off… (wow, 15 pages long!)


	4. Truce

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, bits of other shows and books are involved such as Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Full Metal Alchemist (not enough to actually make it a crossover).

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Disclaimer: I do not own any aspects of Harry Potter other than perhaps the actual books that are published. This is written for fun and definitely not profit. I also do not own anything relating to Warcraft. Anything here you recognize, I do not own it, and otherwise, it's probably my innovation or invention.

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Arthur's Note: I'm not going to say how many reviews I got last chapter, though I loved each and every one of them, because I don't want to seem like I'm bragging in any way. I sincerely appreciate everyone for reviewing. I'm sorry I didn't update this sooner but I had to work on my other story a bit so this chapter was delayed until today instead of… perhaps up to two days ago. Now that I think about it, it's because of the reviews that I now feel guilt if I don't update. I can't even enjoy reading other people's fan fiction now because of feeling bad. So to get my conscious cleared, I'm going to bring this chapter to you guys now. I've been planning this for a while now and I hope you guys like it. So I'm going to stop talking about it now and actually give you guys the chapter. I'll skip other things for after the story… but first… one more thing…

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**IMPORTANT**

I recently got an e-mail about banning responses to reviews and a petition against that new rule. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but to stay safe, I'm not going to reply the way I normally do. However, for those that wrote some interesting points, questions, and thoughts down in their reviews, I'm putting an explanatory paragraph after the chapter to address those reviews indirectly (wink, wink) and sorry for the inconvenience but if you want to know about my thoughts on proposed ideas, thoughts, and such, you'll have to read through the part to look for your response point. If anyone knows the truth behind this, please tell me!

So without further delay, I give you, the next chapter!

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Four:**

**Truce**

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It was a beautiful day, the sky was gray, the rain of blood was fresh, and the sun was black. Sounds of tortured captives filled the air and scents of decaying flesh refreshed those in the metropolis. This was the perfect day for Mal' Ganis. It wasn't just because of the scenery either, it was because today was his big day, the day that marked the beginning of his final mission before being admitted into the second highest rank he could ever hope to accomplish. 

He definitely had to succeed in his mission. It was the deciding factor of whether he was worthy enough to become a High Dreadlord at his young age of 200 years. He was the first ever to take a judgment mission before 500 years of age. Excitement coursed through his veins as he recalled the "perks" of High Dreadlords.

At first, the Dreadlords were created by King Archimonde to lead the Burning Legion into war against The Alliance ad their considerable forces. They were humanoid in shape, while they were anything but human. To the naked eye, they appeared to be the most handsome men alive, with a charm that could not be resisted by any normal mortal. That was their purpose; to sow chaos into whatever world they were sent by bending people to their will and turning brethren against one another.

However, as people began to delve into the arcane arts, sorcerers and priests were able to break through their illusions and see the Dreadlords for what they were. In their true forms, the Dreadlords maintained their muscular forms, though their visages were much different. While they still had the same pale skin as their illusion-made counterparts, the skin is wrinkled in most cases and marked with various gray lines. Their eyes are hidden and normally a person can only see their hollow eye sockets.

They worn black and dark silver armour outlined with gold, no helmets were worn though. The piece of metal near the back of a Dreadlord's neck is enlarged to a form like a very high collar. It was so high, in fact, that one cannot see the back of a Dreadlord's head from behind. This was because that most Dreadlords had horns of some kind on their heads. Their hands also changed into more feral forms covered by sharp gauntlets. The most noticeable change, however, was their backs. There, through two holes in their armour, are two skeletal, bat-like wings. It was these wings that truly showed their demonic heritage. Though despite popular belief, they are not able to fly, though their wings allowed them travel through shadows.

To continue their missions, they knew that they needed to become stronger to fool those they were sent to bring havoc upon. Thus, they perfect their minds at manipulation and turned people against those who could see them for who they were. World after world crumbled as Archimonde's empire and forces grew while the Alliance tried desperately to push back, sending their own heroes to be killed or corrupted.

Not everything was as all "fine and dandy" in his kingdom however. For, over time, after the Dreadlords had mastered other various dark and violent arts, they began to fight amongst themselves. It was an all out battle between every Dreadlord ever created and manslaughter was inevitable. Mal' Ganis couldn't remember much about that, as he wasn't a very keen participant in history lessons, but the Dreadlord wars only stopped when Archimonde sent messengers to investigate the situation. Only six had remained alive at the end but they were exhausted to the point of near insanity.

Archimonde then entitled the strongest two as the Arch Dreadlords while naming the other four High Dreadlords. New generations of Dreadlords were being created and they were to teach and train the younglings so that another "wasteful bloodbath" could be avoided. It was also this time that Dreadladies (not very original, but still works) were created for the six remaining elders, more as a prize than anything. The very act created the term "trophy wife" though they were treated more as sex slaves than anything else.

While, incredibly beautiful and powerful in many aspects, the Dreadladies were bonded by a blood pact to their respective masters… ahem… husbands. This was what urged many young Dreadlords to try to become part of the High Four (what they called the high Dreadlords). All that mattered for them was to have a Dreadlady bounded to them, to do with as they pleased, to fulfill their sadistic and primal desires. This was because the rest of them were treated only marginally better than the rank-and-file troops that they commanded and as such they were considered worthless. Thus, Archimonde thought that them breeding would be a waste of time and he told them so.

Mal' Ganis had wanted the fame and power that came with becoming a High Dreadlord more than anything else, and now was his chance to make his dreams come true. Trotting drown the corridors of the Necropolis Citadel merrily, he finally arrived at the main mission briefing room. Upon entering, he noticed the four elders gathered side by side in front of a large portal talking to someone on the other side. Their armour was different than the others. Each sported a different colour. Going from left to right, they were blue, orange, brown, and red.

Mal' Ganis promptly halted in front of his superiors and dropped to one knee while bowing his head slightly. "Hail elders!" He said in a smooth voice. The four turned to look at him before returning to the portal. "King Archimonde, Mal' Ganis has arrived." The high Dreadlord in red spoke to the figure in the portal. "Very well Tichondrius, bring him here."

Tichondrius nodded and turned to look at Mal' Ganis. "Mal' Ganis," he said, in a commanding and wise tone, "come here before King Archimonde and pay your respects." The lower level Dreadlord nodded before getting up and walking to the front of the portal that acted more as a communications device. "Hail King Archimonde!" he said as he repeated the same gesture before the Demon King.

There wasn't really a picture of Archimonde through the mirror-like gateway, only a foggy blur. Mal' Ganis remembered something about something called the First Great War and the severe wounds inflicted upon Archimonde, but he was still confused as to why the king hid. It was said that his power was only 5 percent of his actual strength during the time after the war, but even in his weakened state, he could have destroyed all six of the original Dreadlords with one swipe of his hand. No one knows what the great Archimonde looked like, though rumours said that he was too large to fit into normal sized dimensions.

"Rise Mal' Ganis," the demon king said, sounding powerful and intimidating. Following his command, the young Dreadlord stood up and gazed at the shadowy form of Archimonde. "Are you prepared for your final mission?" He asked, more like a challenge than a question. Mal' Ganis nodded once more, feeling excited at the prospect of a bloody battle.

"Very well, Tichondrius, brief him on the mission." Archimonde said, turning slightly. The silent elder nodded and turned to Mal' Ganis.

"This is a high priority mission. Your main objectives are as follows:

Construct a portal to the Dimension of Sealed Souls, which was part of your initial exam and should be completed as of now.

Bring chaos to the realm and exterminate all possible resistance against the main invasion force.

Wait for further instructions after constructing level 10 base establishments.

Your optional objectives are as follows:

Find and destroy the mortal that calls himself the Dark Lord Voldemort and assimilate his forces.

Contact the Dreadlord scouts Fearoth and Nerothos to try and gain the support of local Vampires (descendants of Dreadlords) and Veelas (descendants of Dreadladies).

Finally, locate and try to obtain the support of subject 021 by any means possible. Should you be unable to obtain his support, report and wait for further instructions.

Are there any questions?"

Mal' Ganis took a while to take in the information. This was definitely going to be a tough mission. This was where subject 021 was located! In the files of the Burning Legion, many people were wanted, the lower number, the higher priority. Anyone less than subject 100 was thought to be at least as powerful as the Arch Dreadlord. This was going to be interesting for sure. Mal' Ganis shook his head in the negative as he committed his objectives to his permanent memory.

"Very well," Tichondrius said plainly before snapping his fingers and a green tome appeared out of nowhere. "This hold all the information allowed to be given to you about anything that relates to your mission." The high Dreadlord handed over the book to him before snapping his fingers again to summon an ancient looking green case. "Due to the importance of this mission, you will be given the power of a High Dreadlord to aid you. However, you are not an official elder just yet. You will be officially promoted should you succeed in this mission."

Mal' Ganis was ecstatic; he would finally be able to taste the power of the first generation Dreadlords. Tichondrius opened the box to reveal two pulsing green orbs. One was solid where as the other was in a gaseous state. Talking the one made out of gas, the other three elders began to chant in a mysterious sounding tongue. "I, Tichondrius, High Dreadlord of the Eternal Dragon's Fire, bestow onto you the powers of High Dreadlord of the Infinite Poisons." With that said, the green orb in his hand was driven into the chest of Mal' Ganis.

Immediately, he felt a great surge of power throughout his body as he grew in size. It was the best feeling that he had ever experienced and it only disappointed him when it was over. Looking at himself, he saw that his armour was now green along with his wings. The second green orb suddenly flew out form its carriage and began to revolve peacefully around his right hand.

Before he could let himself be fully taken over by bliss brought on by his new power, Tichondrius started again. "Now that the briefing is done, you are to depart immediately." Mal' Ganis snapped out of his trance and nodded. With a wave of his hand, two dark clothed figures appeared holding a large mirror. The two servants placed the mirror on the ground and began their arcane spell, chanting while the new High Dreadlord looked on approvingly.

After a long wait, one of the servants cleared his throat uncomfortable. "Master Mal' Ganis, it appears that gates 1 through 3 are destroyed while gates 4-5 are blocked." At the news, Mal Ganis' paled and his skin looked whiter than ever. He could feel the amusement from the other occupants of the room at his mistakes. "Then use the sixth one!" He commanded, getting nervous.

"But sir-" The other began before being cut off. "Just do it!" Mal' Ganis said, feeling irritation coursing through himself along with the other Dreadlords. He gave a sigh of relief as the portal activated. "This is where I bid thee farewell Elders, and King Archimonde." He bowed before stepping into the vortex.

As soon as he left, the two remaining servants retreated. "Are you sure he'll make it through that unstable portal?" One asked the other. "Does it matter?" The other replied before both laughed heartily.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the briefing room, Tichondrius turned to the others with a smirk. "It'll be too bad when we loose him. Ambition-driven idiots like him are so hard to find these days." The other nodded in agreement while Archimonde chuckled. "Perhaps we should have told him that no one ever made it to becoming the fifth High Dreadlord?" The Elder in blue asked, before everyone erupted in sadistic laughter. 

"Back to business," Archimonde said, getting the attention of his elites. "Tichondrius, prepare for departure to aid the Lich King." At the sigh of protest from the demon, Archimonde continued. "I know that he seems shady and is more than likely to betray us, but he is the only one in the Ancestor's Council. We need him whether we like it or not." The red Dreadlord nodded grimly before disappearing in a flash of flames.

"The rest of you, prepare the main invasion force, soon, all will be won." Archimonde finished his instructions as the others too disappeared. He deactivated the portal and returned to his throne. He has been healing for centuries and he is still only at 35 percent power. He needed to be at his best for what he intends to do. However, he would just have to make do by sending someone else should he be unprepared then.

"I still don't like them." A gruff voice said from the darkness in front of the throne. "They're too weak." An enormous figure stepped into the dim light. Archimonde looked at the new arrival before sighing. "And I suggest you want me to send the Pit Lords instead?"

A grunt in the affirmative confirmed his theory. With another sigh, Archimonde looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. "I'm not going to send them, yet. However, I want you to prepare your troops. I think you would like your old toys back before playing with everyone else… Mannoroth?" His reply was a deep laugh before he himself joined in. 'This is going to be fun…'

* * *

"WHY THE HELL AM I HOLDING A PYGMY PUFF?" 

Harry couldn't believe it, the most powerful weapon on Earth… was a PYGMY PUFF! Due to his shock over what he was seeing, Harry failed to notice four glowing lights of red, green, blue, and yellow until they impacted the small pink creature in his hands. "Great, can you turn colours now?" Harry asked bitterly. He was clearly unhappy about the outcome of all that has happened.

Giving off a soft sigh, Harry examined the small bundle of fur in his palm. Hoping for something else, Harry did the first thing that he could think of to get the pygmy puff to change. He poked it. And poked it. And poked it…

"OW!" Harry exclaimed, as he looked at the pink ball that has attached itself to his left index finger. Waving his arm wildly, Harry looked at Dumbledore for any sign of help. Dumbledore just floated there, looking serene and smiling with his megawatt eyes. 'The damn thing bit me!' Harry said, clearly pissed off now.

Grabbing the creature, Harry again followed his instincts and threw it against the floor (idea inspired by Deadwilder). To his dismay, as Harry was looking downwards to see if it was all right, it bounced back up at twice the speed right into his face. Harry, in turn fell on his behind. Letting out a big yelp at a stinging pain in his rear, Harry turned to see that the spear tip at the end of his ponytail was now resting comfortably imbedded in the flesh of his behind.

Getting up and removing the offending object, Harry turned to glare at the pygmy puff that was now comfortably seated on the stand that it came from. 'Ok… annoying little dust mite: 2… Harry Potter… 0' He thought bitterly. He was thinking about what to do with his fuzzy little problem before his former headmaster interrupted him. "Harry, I think we should continue, then you can begin."

"Begin what professor?" Harry asked, but Dumbledore didn't answer him as he turned and headed to one of two doors that were in the room. Harry turned to the small pygmy puff with a defeated expression on his face. "Truce?" He asked, holding out his hand. The small creature's eyes turned into upside down V's as it jumped onto his head and snuggled into his hair before taking a small nap.

Harry rolled his eyes as he walked through the same door that Dumbledore did moments before. As he entered the new room, he noticed the big difference between the last room and this one. Instead of being surrounded by a blinding whiteness, this room was completely dark with a large blue diamond in the middle. Going closer, he noticed that there was a broadsword trapped within the ice.

The strange thing was, that as the ice revolved one way, the sword revolved the other. It was a malicious looking weapon. At the base of the blade, the metal was shaped into a skull and the rest of the sword was pitch black. There was a pale blue aura that was shown against its surroundings. There were also inscribed markings on the ice as if to say something to those who are near the sword.

"Whomsoever takes up this blade shall wield power eternal. Just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit." Came a voice beside him. Harry turned to see the ghostly visage of his former headmaster. "Come again professor?" He asked, somewhat confused. "Never touch this blade until I tell you so Harry." Dumbledore said seriously. Pressing his hands on the ice and muttering under his breath, Dumbledore shattered the ice and a sheath made out of a black metal covered the blade.

"This is Frostmourne, Harry. I am not allowed to tell you much about it, other than that you are to hold it for now and only use it after I tell you it is ok to wield it. This sword holds the pieces of countless other souls, whether they were give willingly or not. This is also where I shall be to guide you." With that said, Dumbledore suddenly plunged his head into the blade as it was a pensieve. Harry watched in morbid horror as the spirit of his old professor was sucked into the cold piece of metal.

"Quickly Harry, we don't have long." Dumbledore said from within the blade. Nodding, Harry reached out for it until he realized that he barely had any cloths on for the blade to cling to. Absently conjuring a plain set of black robes and shoes, Harry strapped the blade to his back. On top of his head, he could feel the pygmy puff shuddering. 'Maybe I should name it?' Harry thought as he unconsciously put a hand on the creature to try and comfort it.

"Hey," he said, bringing his new friend down. "How would you like to be named Snuffles?" He asked, wanting to have something represent his late godfather. The small ball of fluff seeming nodded before drifting back to sleep. Harry placed Snuffles in one of his pockets as he searched for a way out.

The trip back to Dumbledore's office was uneventful, unless you count the ceiling closing up after he exited from it. As he landed, he heard a small crunch from underneath his feet. Looking down, Harry saw what used to be his glasses (sorry, I forgot all about that in the beginning). He shrugged before throwing it into the trash. In his recent events, he had more to worry about than glasses. However, that probably explained why Harry's original eye was damaged so much. The glass shards must have imbedded into his eyeball.

"Quickly Harry, you need to get two books from my shelf before we go. We need to go really soon." Not understanding the urgency, Harry looked around. "Which ones?" He asked, seeing many tomes in the office. "Feel for them, they're concealed." Still confused, Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on feeling out two powerful volumes. Finding them, Harry couldn't help but grab them quickly, shrink them, put them into another pocket and quickly ran out from the office.

"Why are we in such a hurry?" Harry asked out loud, wondering if there was any danger.

"Hogsmade is under attack…"

End Chapter Four

* * *

A/N: All right, I hope that was enjoyable for you guys to read. I'm sorry but I need to do more background stuff that I thought. I actually had to cut some parts from this chapter for later so as to move things on a bit quicker. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and please someone tell me if we are allowed to respond to reviews or not.

* * *

**EXPLANATORY PARAGRAPHS (WINK.WINK)**

I have no idea about anything in regards to Dungeons and Dragons, the Death Reverents I used in the last chapter were from Warcraft, but all of these things tend to intertwine so I think it's explanatory.

Sorry to those who voted anonymously but your votes will not be counted. I have already addressed this and I'm sorry but I have to enforce it. If you do not have an account at then please at least write your e-mail in the anonymous spot as that will let people know that different people are voting.

All books in this series are going to revolve around Harry, though there may be a break of a month or so between books for me to get fresh ideas. In the last books there may be other characters in it that are very crucial and perhaps VERY close to Harry (wink. wink). Harry is only powerful right now in terms of raw magical, spiritual, mental, physical, etc. power capacity. He still needs to refine skills and learn better control and what not. He needs to do a lot of training from here on to use his power to the best that it can be used. Wait until you guys see Mal' Ganis against Harry for the first time. **WARNING SPOILER **He will be going around the world over the summer to train and… run errands. He will be mostly self-training or by Dumbledore though, but some exceptions would be made. **SPOILER ENDED **No matter what anyone says in their reviews, I will take it into consideration (unless it's really stupid like… "bunnies are from mars with blue machine guns") and I will not take any offence (even if you want me to) at what is said. Know that I do not feel obligated to listen to anyone but I would take suggestions that I like.

Wait for the new Snuffle's ass-kicking action next chapter. Nothing funny next chapter though… serious action… Everyone would have to wait to find out any inner changes with Harry and how his friends would react to him. All of you just have to wait… but not woo long though (Hint. Hint)

I think that's all for now, the major points anyways. I apologize for spelling, grammar, and other such more minor errors and I hope that you guys can understand what I'm saying clearly.

* * *

**IMPORTANT!**

On a more serious note, I just thought of another way to better reader-author interaction. All you have to do is review and for chapters 4-5 (wait for the next chapter), I'm going to pick two random reviewers for chapter 4 and they'll get a prize. The prize is a reasonable request. For example, you may want an extra chapter update before the next scheduled one, or perhaps you may want me to guarantee someone into the pairings (NO SLASH sorry), or maybe you want to be in the story as an OC? That last one would require me to ask you a small questionnaire though. So any of those or a similarly doable request (not "give me one thousand chapters by tomorrow") is fine. For those that don't want part of this, please say so in your review if you still review and for those who want to be part of this, please also indicate that in your review. I will announce the winner in chapter six. I hope I'm not breaking any rules and if it is, please just tell me instead of reporting me.

Also, since I'm definitely going to have Tonks and Fleur in the pairing, since they're the two most popular so far (including chapter 3's signed reviews) and I've got my scenes of getting them into the harem thought out already. So please stop voting for them as they are definitely in. Also, just so people know, you can all vote once per chapter for those who've already voted. That way, you can emphasize the people you REALLY want apart from the people you just like to have in. So, no more blabbering and here's the results so far.

* * *

**Pairing standings **so far (if you vote for "anyone is fine" then everyone gets a vote, if you vote that you don't want someone, that'll be minus one for that person): 

Narcissa Black: 15

Bellatrix Black: 17

Patil Twins (both): 15

Gabrielle Delacour (age modified): 9

Padma Patil: 7

Daphne Greengrass: 10

Pansy Parkinson: 5

Hannah Abbot: 5

Susan Bones: 8

Luna Lovegood: (added because of suggestion, no votes yet)

* * *

That's all. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and please vote on the pairings. I'm sorry if I didn't respond to them, but my reason is as stated above. I'm not sure if it's allowed. 

U-T signing off…

BYE!


	5. Taking The Spotlight

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, bits of other shows and books are involved such as Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Full Metal Alchemist (not enough to actually make it a crossover).

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspects of Harry Potter other than perhaps the actual books that are published. This is written for fun and definitely not profit. I also do not own anything relating to Warcraft. Anything here you recognize, I do not own it, and otherwise, it's probably my innovation or invention.

Arthur's Note: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed whether it was just a vote or constructive criticisms. To be honest, I wanted to update yesterday but I had to go… gulp… back to school shopping. Therefore I had to update today instead. I have been working on this chapter in my mind for quite a while now, almost before the last chapter was posted. This is (in my opinion) one of the more major fight scenes (but it's not a real major battle in terms of importance in my point of view). The scene would take around the entire chapter. If it's a bit too short in my liking, then I might make a faster update for the next chapter (which also means that you'll find out who wins in the little contest that I'm holding. Since I'm still unsure about responding to reviews, I'm only going to say thanks to those whose reviews are not really needed to be responded to (like those just stating votes) while answering those who've put quite a bit of effort and thought into their reviews. I think this chapter will be better than the last one, at least, if I get it out the way I planned it in my head. Those who find similarities in this chapter know that I've been watching Naruto and Gundam Seed so that might be where it's from. So I'll end this chattering now and actually give you guys the chapter. However, I wanted to help clear some things up about last chapter's Mal' Ganis portion first…

* * *

**CLEARENCES FOR LAST CHAPTER (MAL' GANIS)**

The following things are the main points that you are supposed to have learned from it:

There are lots of different dimensions and universes.

Archimonde is the king of demons and wants to turn each and every one of those worlds into an undead paradise.

Archimonde's army is called the Burning Legion.

During one of the earlier wars, Archimonde was damaged badly and even after centuries of recovery, he's still only at a fraction of his original powers.

Dreadlords were created to be leaders of the Burning Legion.

The past and purpose of the Dreadlords (should have been somewhat clear) including the positions of power. From the weakest to the strongest, it's Dreadlord (normal), High Dreadlord, and Arch Dreadlord.

Existence of Dreadladies.

Mal' Ganis going to Earth for a mission (including killing Voldemort as an OPTIONAL objective).

Mal' Ganis was given the powers of a High Dreadlord.

Mal' Ganis goes through a dysfunctional portal.

The following things are the main points that you are **not **supposed to have learned from it (part of the mystery so don't think of yourself as dumb for not understanding):

The true origin of Archimonde

The Lich King and his importance

The identity of the Pit Lords and Mannoroth

Mannoroth's "toys"

Why Archimonde wants Voldemort dead

The identities of the High and Arch Dreadlords (except for Tichondrius)

What is "The Alliance" and "The Ancestor's Council"

The identity of "subject 021"

What happened to the other portals of Mal' Ganis

That should be everything that I wanted to get across from the last demon part. If there are any more questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Therefore, let us get on with the story…

* * *

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Five:**

**Taking The Spotlight**

* * *

From the last chapter…

"Quickly Harry, you need to get two books from my shelf before we go. We need to go really soon." Not understanding the urgency, Harry looked around. "Which ones?" He asked, seeing many tomes in the office. "Feel for them, they're concealed." Still confused, Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on feeling out two powerful volumes. Finding them, Harry couldn't help but grab them quickly, shrink them, put them into another pocket and quickly ran out from the office.

"Why are we in such a hurry?" Harry asked out loud, wondering if there was any danger.

"Hogsmade is under attack…"

* * *

Harry stopped dead in his tracks despite the objection that his former mentor had just voiced out. "And you're telling me this now why?" Harry asked, clearly unhappy about information being kept from him all over again. "Would you have been able to better help out in your former form or current form?" Dumbledore asked, hoping that Harry would start moving again soon. If only he had a body and was able to drag Harry around himself.

To Dumbledore's pleasure, Harry started running again, even going as far as clutching Snuffles to him to keep it from falling out of his pocket. Harry was almost to the front doors when he heard Dumbledore's voice again. "This isn't good Harry, you need to get to higher grounds and fight from there." Knowing that this wasn't the time to argue but still stubborn enough to want the truth, he asked Dumbledore to explain the situation.

"It's like this Harry, the Death Eaters have already passed through the gates of Hogwarts. What remains of the teachers, aurors and student defenders, yes, there are student defenders out there, are falling back into the castle to regroup. I don't think you want people to know about your powers just yet as they are not developed fully, therefore you should go up and perhaps fight from one of the windows so as to hide yourself."

About half way through Dumbledore's explanation, Harry started to formulate a plan. "Dobby!" He called out, and winced a second later as a loud crack signaled the appearance of the house elf. 'I thought he said house elf magic was only allowed in the kitchens?' Harry thought, 'But then again, there was that time that he fought off Malfoy senior for me."

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Harry quickly addressed his queerly dressed friend. "Dobby, this is an emergency, I need you to teleport me to the top of the astrology tower, please." The small creature tilted his head in slight confusion before recognizing whom he was talking to. "Harry Potter has changed…" He said before shaking his head in the negative. "Dobby cannot do so sir, it would hurt Harry Potter too much, Dobby does not want to hurt Mr. Potter. Kitchens were only place Harry Potter could get in harmlessly to."

Harry shuddered remembering the previous trip and glued a determined face onto this face as looked to Dobby. "You have to help me and do as I asked Dobby." Seeing the house elf's hesitation, Harry pulled out his last minute resort. "If you won't help me, I'll have to order Kreacher to do it instead. Please Dobby, help me out." His small friend's eyes widened as he nodded reluctantly and grabbed Harry's wrists suddenly.

Before Harry could mutter a word of thanks, he felt the familiar pain go through him. However, this time it was much more brutal. It was as if he was forced to shrink to the size of a golf ball and then was shattered into many pieces. There would be so many words to describe his pain that he didn't know where to begin while at the same time, no words could have described his torment.

After what seemed like an eternity, Harry felt the cool summer wind against his face. Regaining his composure, Harry turned to Dobby. "Thank you Dobby," he said, hoping that the house elf wouldn't punish himself. "Before you go, I need to ask you something." Dobby looked at Harry with expectant eyes while trying not to slam his head onto the floor. "Can house elves heal?" Harry asked, hearing shouts and screams from below.

Dobby quickly nodded, apparently nervous about the commotion outside. "Good, quickly gather all the house elves and open the front doors for the teachers, students and aurors. Help treat those who are injured physically and magically too if you guys know how. After that, put up the same barrier that stopped Ron and me from getting onto the train in my second year. When all that is done, ask one of the wizards or witches for instructions as to how to help, got that?"

Dobby paused a bit as if he was writing everything down in an imaginary note pad. Afterwards, he nodded. "I understand Harry Potter sir. But what will you do sir?" He asked, though already knowing the answer. "There's no time to worry about that right now. Do what I say please, as a friend and an equal Dobby." The house elf held back tears as he nodded and disappeared. Dumbledore's chuckle brought Harry back to the present. "You didn't have to make everything so dramatic Harry."

The young teen's reply was a scowl as he started to look at the battle below. There was chaos and destruction everywhere. The grass was no longer green, the water no longer blue, and the trees were enveloped in flames. There was so much death and decay. Harry could see the fighters for light running towards the castle and firing charms over their shoulders while picking up fallen comrades.

Harry turned green as he saw how many of the defenders were actually students. The youngest he could see was a third year so that was somewhat of a comfort to him. As he continued to watch for five seconds, Harry realized two things. The first was that there were no Slytherins anywhere; this made his blood boil as he thought about the snakes. The second thing he noticed, with pride this time, was that the students who were left and were doing very well holding their own were part of the D.A. last year.

It was then that he turned to look at the enemy and his blood ran cold. There, dressed in familiar black robes and different coloured masks, stood an army of at least five hundred Death Eaters, many of which did not fall even when hit with a spell. Harry felt that something was wrong so he concentrated a small amount of magic into this new eye. He almost gasped at what he saw.

After dispelling the affects of the illusion, Harry saw no more than perhaps four-dozen capable Death Eaters. In front of each of them, held like a shield, were their own fallen comrades. It was no wonder why none of them seemed to be falling. Getting frustrated when he saw the invaders trample on fallen defenders, Harry turned his attention to Dumbledore.

"Damn it! How am I supposed to help? I don't even have a wand with me!" Harry asked, trying desperately to think of something that he could to help. "The answer is in your pocket." That was his reply before something stirred in his pant pocket. Harry looked down to see Snuffles awake and seemingly excited.

Desperate to do anything he could to help, Harry held the small creature eye level. Dumbledore picked that time to continue. "The omnisence has three weapon forms, one for melee one on one combat, one for melee one on many combat, and one for ranged assaults. Each is different for a different user. Call upon it and ask for what you need."

Holding the small puff of fuzz, Harry closed and thought in an almost prayer like style. 'I need the ranged weapon, I need to help my friends, please… help me… just help me.' Opening his eyes, he saw Snuffles glowing brightly on the palm of his Un-Arm hand. His eyes then widened as he saw the pygmy puff seeming melt into the metal on his arm. It was around that same time when he felt a great wave of power wash over him, or rather, his arm to be exact.

He continued to stair in awe and amazement as he saw the metal of the Un-Arm being shaped into a more rectangular shape. It was also around this time that he felt a growing pain in his scar. Should Dumbledore have a face right now (whether physical or spiritual), he would have shock on his face as well, though not for the same reasons as the young wizard in front of him. 'I can't believe it…' Dumbledore thought as he watched on from inside Frostmourne. 'The omnisence, it actually bonded with Harry!' He looked at Harry's scar that was now glowing a combination of red and… pink.

It would have been amusing to see the expression on Harry's face in almost any other situation should he be told that his famous scar was flashing pink, but today wasn't meant for fun… well, harmless fun anyways. Harry opened his eyes even though he didn't remember closing them and stared at his further-improved arm.

It was somewhat similar to the original Un-Arm, but there were some major differences. First off, instead of a hand with fingers, he had a hand, if you could call it that, which resembled the barrels on a gatling machine gun. Counting, Harry saw that he had twenty barrels. While lifting his hand to examine it, Harry also noticed that there were cylindrical/cone-shaped objects attached to the four sides of his rectangular arm, two on each side to be exact. The final change was his shoulder piece, where there was now what seemed to be four much larger barrels. They were so big that Harry thought they were missile launchers at first, but then realized that it was too similar to his gatling barrels to be missile launchers. Other than those changes, his arm was about the same, meaning that there was still the runic writing on his arm.

Before he could comment on this latest development in his life, he noticed that there was something different about his vision as well. Instead of the normal sight of things a normal person sees, Harry saw that his vision was green and everything was covered in a grid. On the top left corner of his vision, he was the words Time Pause Off. 'This is just like a video game.' Harry thought as he watched the battle below him in a whole new light, literally. Wondering how the Time Pause worked, Harry decided to work his new weapon the same way he did with all of his latest "improvements". 'Ok, here goes nothing,' Harry thought. 'Time Pause On'

It all happened in an instant. Everything soon froze in his line of vision. Not knowing what this really did, Harry decided to ask Dumbledore for an explanation. To his surprise, he couldn't move his mouth to talk, he couldn't breathe for that matter. It was so unreal, yet he wasn't suffocating. Figuring that this was supposed to help him devise plans, Harry studied the field below him. It wasn't long before he gave up though as he couldn't really see anything clearly.

Following the idea that this perhaps was something like one of Dudley's old games, Harry tried to see if there was anything else that he could do. 'Um… Main Menu?' He half thought half commanded, and to his relief another green screen appeared. There were six options that he could see: Weaponry Stats, Personal Stats, Spell Repertoire, Scenario Information, Command, and More.

Deciding to try out everything, it's not like he was wasting time, Harry first tried the Weaponry Stats. Here, he saw another screen. He basically saw an analyzed picture of his new… ugh… newer arm with various labels. Beneath the picture he saw what was probably all the main statistics he would need: Barrels 1-20, empty, undamaged… Cannons 1-4, empty, undamaged… Funnels 1-8, empty, undamaged, accounted for… 'Funnels' Harry thought unconsciously while wondering what it was and unexpectedly saw the picture zoom to where he had seen the eight cylindrical attachments before. Underneath the picture (once again) were the stats: Funnels 1-2, rapid-fire function… Funnels 3-4, sniper function… Funnels 5-6, spread-fire function… Funnels 7-8, splash damage function.

Harry sighed mentally as his head began to hurt because of all the information. He really didn't know what funnels were, but he thought that he probably would learn later. Afterwards, he tried Personal Stats. To his dismay, all he saw was numbers: Life Force 2000/2000… Magic 2.6mil/3mil… Mana 3mil/3mil… Spiritual Energy 3mil/3mil… It hurt his head too much, there was way more than those four, and he didn't know what most of them were.

Giving up ahead of time to spare himself a bigger headache, Harry tried the Spell Repertoire. It was what he had imagined it to be. It was a list of all the spells he had ever learned and seen. The ones that caused him no trouble at all were white, the ones he found difficult but still doable were green, the ones he read about were yellow, while the spells that he only saw and heard about were red. What he did find surprising though was the small "Load" option beside each white and green spell and some of the yellow ones. 'So this is like a gun for spells,' Harry thought, again surprised to see a screen pop up. However, this time, it was the picture of Snuffles beside a small note that read "Error: Invalid Command".

Sighing mentally again, Harry decided to try the next one. When he was brought to his original view, he thought he did something wrong until he saw two options: View and Scan. Deciding to follow the order, Harry found out that he surprisingly could see the view of the battle in a birds-eye view angle. When he tried scan, he felt a lot of burden lifting from his shoulder. His results were something like this.

Scanning…

Scan Complete

Results:

50 Death Eaters in Hogwarts Vicinity currently confronting 11 Teachers, 15 Aurors, and 28 students

50 Death Eaters dead being held by comrades

87 unconscious and wounded students

13 over all (teachers, students, aurors) dead

200 werewolves stationed in forbidden forest with 400 reinforcements approaching

4 commanders amongst werewolves

134 centaurs and 376 acromantulas approaching werewolf camp

14 Death Eaters attacking Hogwarts Express

50 Death Eaters in Hogsmade confronting 13 civilians, 67 Aurors and 20 Order of Phoenix members

157 overall deaths in Hogsmade (unable to break down origins)

550 dementors will arrive in Hogsmade in one hour

250 inferi will arrive at Hogwarts grounds in two hours

298 students in Hogwarts express currently sustaining barriers

115 students wounded in the same train

End results

While it was true that their situation seemed hopeless, at least now Harry would know about what was going on and what was happening. Armed with this new information and completely forgetting the "more" option, Harry went to Command. Now understanding how everything worked, Harry gave out his commands in such grace, intelligence and accuracy that he wondered if he could finally beat Ron in chess. He was now staring at three screens, a combination of Weaponry Stats, Scenario Information, and the original map. 'Designate all Death Eaters, Werewolves, Inferi, and Dementors as enemies. Designate all Students, Civilians, Teachers, Aurors, Acromantula, and Centaurs as allies.' He waited a moment before he saw the enemies outlined in red and those on the side of light outlined in green.

He had to remember to protect those students that were already down and injured, not to mention the incapacitated adults too. Also, he knew that he had to fight one thing at a time and not go all over the place. Thinking about spells quickly, Harry tried to use one of his lesser-known spells. 'Serpensortia load into Barrels 1-10, fire function: rapid fire (speed), target all unconscious and wounded allies in Hogwarts, command to the snakes, guard all unconscious allies. Stunners load into Barrels 11-15, fire function: sniper (accuracy), target all enemy Death Eaters on school grounds. Reductors load into Barrels 16-20, same commands as Stunners.'

He waited until the texts beside the barrels turn from "loading" to "ready". Harry thought to himself a bit more. 'Requesting range for cannons' Harry thought as he saw a white circle being drawn on the map. He frowned; or rather he would have frowned. 'Requesting range for patronus charm,' Harry was much happier when he saw the range: unlimited. 'Assign patronus charm to all cannons, aim for furthest point possible closest to approaching Dementors. Command for patronus: Attack all Dementors.' Harry waited once more, though it was much longer this time.

Finally, as Harry began to become mentally exhausted, he gave his final commands. 'Load enervate to rapid-fire and spread-fire funnels, target all unconscious allies on school grounds, adults prioritization. Diffindo load into sniper funnels, target all enemy wands and weapons. Deletrius load into splash damage funnels, target groups of Death Eater images.' It should work in any way that he could see it. Harry hoped everything would work out fine for him once.

'Time pause… off' Harry thought as everything started to move again so fast that Harry had to take a while to clear his head. He noticed that Dumbledore's presence was missing but didn't think much about it as he had more important matters to address to as of the moment. Harry shrugged as he lifted his now glowing arm and pointed it below him to the battle going on there. 'Barrels, fire at will!' Harry commanded as what used to be his fingers shot out different colours of light and snakes at different intervals.

"Cannons, fire!" Harry shouted, not realizing that he had actually said it out loud. What came out surprised him. Perhaps it was because of the enhancing capabilities of the cannon or the happiness that he really was experiencing while helping out his friends, but whatever it was, it was huge… just like the four patronus charms. Within seconds, four stags the size of giants rushed to the ground and headed towards the direction of the Dementors. Harry was pleased to see that some even trampled Death Eaters in its path while being careful to avoid his friends.

'Funnels now!' He wondered what funnels were but he was pleasantly surprised. The weapons detached from his arm and flew like missiles towards their targets, once close enough, they started firing their respective spells while jerking and moving this way and that in various formations and dodges.

Harry watched as the splash damage funnels fired and all the images were dispelled. It was felt so good to finally be able to do something productive. The shouts of surprise when their wands were cut and broken, when they were blown away, and when they were immobilized, were music to his ears. He then frowned as he saw what happened, while it was true that all the Death Eaters were beaten within 5 minutes, their last barrage of spells had completely devastated the remaining defenders. The enervate spells that were cast weren't really helping at all.

Seeing that there wasn't a need to continue fighting, at least for a while, Harry stopped firing. Trying to get a fast way down to the ground, Harry leapt off the roof of the tower while changing barrel 1 to a summoning charm. Quickly, Harry concentrated and just before he was about to hit the ground, he received one of the last Death Eater wands that were still intact. Quickly levitating himself, Harry landed with a soft "thud" right in the middle of the battlefield. As soon as he touched the ground, Harry finally felt the cost of his wild spell firing taking its toll on him.

Ignoring his newfound exhaustion, Harry made his way over to the two last standing figures. "Professor McGonagall! Professor Flitwick!" Harry shouted, making his way over to his teachers. The two took a defensive position before their eyes landed on Harry's scar and their eyes widened. "Potter?" Asked the new headmistress, not believing what she was seeing. "What happened to you?"

"There's no time professor," Harry said as he had time paused once more to see the situation, everything was the same except for the changes he's made here and the delaying and reduction of Dementors. However, he noticed that the Death Eaters were evening out the odds in the fight in Hogsmade, as the battle was now around 40 against 40. Quickly, he placed both of their hands in his left palm and began to chant. The adults looked on with wonder as they felt a bluish energy wash over and heal them.

"Professors, I have to leave it up to you to take care of everyone here," Harry said quickly turning his back to them and gesturing towards the fallen defenders. "The house elves in the castles will be helping you, I suggest one of you start for the castle to get their help while the other starts reviving the people here. I'll help in the more severe cases."

Both professors nodded and headed off to their tasks and neither wondered why they were taking orders from a teenager. Harry started to help Flitwick heal the injured and revive the unconscious. He had originally thought to go to the Hogwarts express, but his Scenario Information told him that the students are quite safe for at least another half an hour. Now he concentrated on enabling people to fight again. Using his many barrels, (this entire time he had been constantly charging and sending petronuses from his cannons) Harry bound each and every Death Eater before starting to help heal everyone.

Using his healing ritual circle, Harry managed to revive many of the adult defenders and those from the D.A. to close to full health. He was moving so fast that nobody could identify him because he knew he needed to hurry. Every five minutes Harry would check on the situation despite the strain that he had already put onto his magic reserve and mind. When it seemed that the werewolf reinforcements were going to arrive before the current werewolf battle would finish, Harry sent his army of serpents (more than 150 snakes!) to help the Centaurs and Acromantulas.

Once the more serious injuries were dealt with and the better fighters were healed and awoken, Harry summoned one more snake before enlarging it and, while riding it, charged towards Hogsmade. He left the Hogwarts battlefield and the now battle-fit defenders to plan out for themselves how they were going to organize their counter attack and take care of their injured.

Once Harry arrived at the village, he saw that the Death Eaters were now winning at 35 against 30. It was obvious that the scum weren't rookies. Without another word, Harry summoned two more snakes before enlarging them and setting the three on the Death Eaters. He also made sure to cast a couple of shield charms onto the snakes so that they would have resistance against magic and last longer.

Harry himself was heading towards Hogsmade station where students were still trapped inside the crimson locomotive. Seeing that there were now 11 Death Eaters attacking the train, Harry let out a small sigh trying to figure out what he was going to do. He was hiding at the moment, wanting the element of surprise. A sharp jolt in his arm brought up a screen that stated that his magic reserves were now less than one third of its full capacity. Thinking that this wasn't anything to worry about, Harry paled when he saw another note that said most wizards needed at least a quarter of their reserve maximum to sustain life. Otherwise, they may face becoming a squib or even death. Normal wizards can't even tap as far as Harry had done.

So now he had to think up another strategy, this was going to be hard. Trying to get additional information with his enhanced eyes, Harry thought of using his Eye of Erised. Taking a breath to gather up some more magic from his reserves, Harry unleashed the full power of his eye. What he saw almost made him gasp. Each of these people wanted to please Voldemort and make him happy. While he could sense that there were deeper desires for them, he saw that their need of satisfying their master was very deep. Realizing that they wanted that so much was because they were afraid of Death, Harry formed a plan in his head.

While it was difficult to make different people see different illusions at the same time, it was relatively easy to make multiple people see one illusion. Harry concentrated as he changed his appearance to the Death Eaters and became the person he hated most of all. He was now Voldemort to the 11 Death Eaters. That was what he loved and noticed about this eye, it allowed him to trick _some_ people, not all. It was all up to his choice. Stepping out into view, Harry levitated himself behind the Death eaters while hiding the wand that he was using on himself to make it seem like he was flying by his own will.

He cleared his throat and the Death Eaters turned around. Though they wore masks, he could see their necks pale and assume the same occurred with their faces. They all bowed on their brooms (Did I mention they were an aerial assault?) and rushed to kiss his robes. Smirking, Harry levitated himself further up into the sky as cannon 1 finished charging its splash damage reductor curse. Dispelling his illusion just as he felt his magical reserve deplete even further, his "servants" gasped in shock and confusion before they saw a bright light and all were sent crashing into the barrier of the train. They wouldn't be fighting anymore.

Harry suddenly felt a pain throughout his body as it began to spasm. Another bright light later, Harry fell onto the ground beside the train. Getting up shakily, Harry saw that Snuffles was now separate from him again and was sleeping on his chest. Harry took the tired little ball of fur and tucked it gently in his pockets before performing a small sticking charm to keep it with him. He was surprised to feel another jolt of pain course throughout his body as he cast the simple charm.

Knowing that magic was now out of the question at least for a while, Harry got to his feet tiredly and started to run towards Hogsmade. He tucked his salvaged wand into his robes in case he desperately needed to use magic in the near future. As he did so, he felt his hand brush upon the two books that were in his pocket. Feeling strangely comforted, Harry continued his run towards the small magical hamlet.

From afar, Harry could tell that his serpents had done a fairly good job as they were still standing and there didn't seem to be any more signs of struggle. Looking around, Harry saw that everything was under control with the Aurors starting to bring the Death Eaters in and the medics starting to take care of the injured.

Knowing that there was still more to come, Harry surreptitiously sneaked past the survivors and climbed on top of one of his giant snakes. Out of the three that he had left, two survived. He couldn't find where the third one's corpse was but still he said a silent thanks to it and its two friends. Without stopping to take a breath, Harry, on top of one of his summoned serpents, left the village in the direction of where the Werewolves were.

He had checked the situation before Snuffles passed out. It seemed that the army of snakes he sent weren't received well with the Acromantula, and while they fought the same enemy, they didn't work together in any way, causing many losses on their side. The good thing that he had figured out was that the werewolves were not transformed and will not tonight as there will be no full moon. However, this only meant that they could use magic in the human form.

With the sides at about 200 against 250 werewolves, Harry knew that this was where he should go next. While it was true that those fit to fight from the Hogwarts battle were planning on joining the fray, Harry would get there faster and hopefully prevent some deaths.

The fire in the forbidden forest had died somewhat by now, but the stench of havoc still lingered. As Harry traveled deeper and deeper into the woods, a strange fog began to appear and thicken. It was pretty soon that the only thing Harry could see was white. There wasn't even a sound of the upcoming battle.

Perhaps this was why all of a sudden Harry's snake stopped and there were surprised cries coming from below him. Thinking quickly, Harry ordered his summons to attack any and all werewolves as he dove into the burnt trees. His surprise departure caused Harry to loose his breath somewhat so he had to stop himself and rest a bit before seeing what was happening. It seemed that the werewolves had already won the battle though they only had around a dozen or so people left.

Thinking about what choices he had now, Harry tried to remember some of the forms that his Un-Arm had. Each of his arms needed magic to work. Cursing his bad luck, Harry thought harder. There was one arm that didn't seem too require much magic though: the arm of Ke'Tha. It felt more natural and that it was using another source of energy. It was then that he remembered everything about his other stats from when Snuffles combined with him. Hoping that the gargoyle arm powered on something else, he shifted his arm causing his body to spasm a bit more.

Taking careful aim at the distracted lycanthropes, Harry managed to take down three before the others realized that something was attacking them other than the two giant serpents. Those three, along with four that his summonses were able to knock out, left only five enemies left. Not wanting to be located, Harry began to change positions before firing the greenish blade over and over again.

When there was only three left, one of his summonses was killed. Harry was relieved to see that instead of collapsing in a pool of blood, the giant snake just vanished. Summoning another snake with his salvaged wand (causing more spasms) and keeping it in its original small size, Harry ordered it to sneak quietly and attack a werewolf when it was least expected.

Not wanting to loose his last giant summons, Harry managed to take down one more enemy before coming out into the clearing. Once the two werewolves had seen him, they gave him their full attention. That was a mistake in itself as soon Harry's new smaller snake bit one while his gargantuan counterpart swung its tail, knocking both of them out.

Harry slumped as another battle was finished. He knew that he had to get up soon and try and help the centaurs and acromantulas, but he was too exhausted and he didn't know where they were. A sudden rustle was heard before two banishing charms impacted with his two summonses and both disappeared. Getting up quickly to his feet, Harry saw four figures approach him. 'The four commanders,' Harry thought, remembering his earlier information gathering.

To his relief however, Harry saw four familiar faces. "Hey guys!" He said, relieved when he saw Michael Corner, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and Ernie Macmillan. His happiness was short lived however, when he saw the looks of hatred they gave him after seeing his scar. 'Oh yea,' Harry thought, remembering his transformation. "Guys, what's wrong?" He asked, only getting silence as a response.

There weren't any more words that were said before the four whipped out their wands and started various incantations. Out of reflex, Harry jumped onto a lower branch before going higher and higher, trying to at least gain higher ground if anything violent was going to take place.

Dodging various spells, Harry looked down once again as the four formed a square with their backs to each other. Knowing that the formation was a good choice, each of them began to fire random spells in random directions trying to hit Harry. Taking careful aim, Harry fired three more blades aimed for their wands before instantly starting to move to another location. He didn't even look to see if he got his targets though shouts of frustration were a good sign at the moment.

Once safely hid again, Harry looked to see that two out of the four wands were now broken for good. Taking out the wand from his pocket once again, Harry used the summoning charm to take one more wand out of their grasp. To Harry's relief, he didn't feel too much pain this time, hopefully meaning that his magic reserve was starting to replenish.

Dean, the last one with a wand, put it away. "Potter, come out and fight us like a man!" Raising an eyebrow at their antics, Harry decided to do as he asked and see what was going to happen. Dropping to the ground in front of them, Harry looked suspiciously at them. "What are you guys doing? Why are you guys attacking me?"

"Me, me, me, is that all you think about?" Seamus spat with venom in his tone. "You want to know what our problem with you is Potter? Fine! We'll humor you. We're tired of always taking the backseat while you get more and more power, more and more fame. We're here to take matters into our own hands and you're going to die today!"

Harry was shocked, where was all this coming from? Were they really his friends or were they maybe imposters? Ernie continued where Seamus left off. "You're the most selfish person I know. Everything you do is to benefit yourself. Even when you're trying to be modest, we know you're just fishing for compliments! Your being captain of the quidditch team, champion in the tri-wizard tournament, the "chosen one", and the likes, it all sickens me!"

Michael and Dean continued from there. "It's not good enough that you've got just about every damn girl in the school after you, but you just _had_ to take ours. It wouldn't do well if we have any happiness at all would it?" Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing; none of it was true… wasn't it? "Heaven forbid if Ginny actually liked me, or were you going to pull a Cedric Diggory one me? Maybe invite me for tea and say that Death Eaters attacked just when I was reaching for a scone?"

At this Harry felt the colour drain from his face. What they all said… it was his deepest doubts and fears… if only he had taken the tri-wizard cup by himself instead of acting noble… and then there was Sirius… and while it was true that Harry saved Ron, Hermione, the other Weasleys, and countless others, weren't they attacked _because _they were associated with him? Then there was the resurrection of Voldemort… if he was dead before the end of his fourth year, then Voldemort wouldn't have been able to get his blood for his vile revival ritual.

Taking Harry's silence as guilt, the four laughed their hearts out. Then in a flash, Dean pulled out his wand again and shot out four spells into the air. Afterwards, he quickly summoned the two wands in Harry's possession and snapped all three. Having been barely snapped out of his thoughts, Harry wondered what was going on before looking up…

There they were, four images of the full moon, also coming with darkness surrounding the illusions. Realization dawned on Harry as he looked at his former friends again. It was like third year all over again, the sound of muscles changing, bones cracking and rearranging, and fur growing filled Harry with a fear that he hadn't ever felt before. It wasn't that he was afraid of being beaten, or even killed, but rather he feared that there were more people like them, people that traded their humanity to get revenge on him.

After a good five minutes, the entire forest was covered in shadows. Harry could barely see the differences between the four, trying to see which one was who. Still frozen in fear, Harry barely noticed the four fully transformed werewolves charging at him. Before Harry could respond, he found himself smashed against a tree with various wounds all over his body. Healing himself with his left palm, Harry staggered onto his feet and tried in vain to hit the four with his copied gargoyle attack.

The four were moving so fast, however, that Harry felt 2 broken ribs and the air knocked out of him before he could even get more than 3 attacks out. The four now surrounded him from four sides. "Guys, let's show him just how much we hate him with our combination move." Ernie said, his accent replaced with venom. The other three nodded before leaping quite a distance away, leaving Ernie standing before a crumbled Harry.

Picking up the battered wizard, Ernie tossed him into the air before kicking straight up with all of his strength. Harry felt a pain that rivaled house elf traveling as he soared up straight up into the air. He wouldn't cry out though, that would only give them satisfaction. Turning slightly in mid air, Harry saw Dean rushing towards him in the air while Seamus was no where to be seen and Michael was bracing himself on a branch further up and farther away from him.

In another second or two, Harry felt himself being kicked like a soccer ball by Dean. Gasping for breath, as breathing was now very difficult, Harry looked to see that he was heading straight towards Michael. He was still confused as to what they were doing when he felt Michael mimic Ernie and kicked him higher into the air again. Once Harry was even higher up than the treetops, he understood what was going to happen. Turning to look up into the sky, Harry wasn't surprised to see Seamus coming down towards him from the sky about to bring his left foot down onto his chest.

Turning once more to protect himself from being hit right in the chest, Harry failed to hear a metallic sound that came from behind his back. Seamus, on the other hand, saw that the sword strapped to Harry's back was coming out of its scabbard a little. Unable to stop himself, he impacted with the blade of the sword. Just as flesh met metal, a blue flame engulfed his entire form as he felt his soul being cut into many different pieces.

Screaming in pain, he failed to notice that by hitting the blade, he also pressed it against Harry. Speaking of the wizard, Harry experienced the same feeling that Seamus was feeling. Though it was oddly familiar to him. He felt his own soul fighting against the power of Frostmourne while subconsciously thinking, "I will not be controlled!" over and over again. When the feeling faded, he saw that Seamus was falling to the ground engulfed in blue flames.

However, he didn't get to examine him for long as time caught up with him and he rushed past the werewolf at a tremendous speed caused by Seamus's hit. Looking ahead of him (down) he saw the other three were crouched and the next second, jumped up to meet him in mid air. Once more, the three feet impacted with him. This time though, he didn't go up as the force of him coming down and cancelled that effect. However, the combined force almost made a hole through his upper body.

Falling down hard onto the ground, Harry gasped for breath as he sputtered out blood from his mouth. Finding the determination to survive, Harry got up and looked over to his four new enemies. From what he could see, Seamus was now part of the dead. Closing his eyes in sorrow, Harry silently prayed that he was finally at peace. The other three, however, looked murderous.

Snarling, Dean took out his wand again and shot another spell at the sky, hitting the four moons. Harry looked up tiredly as he watched in morbid horror when the moons seemed to bleed before turning red all together. Harry looked back at his former friends and silently watched with worn-out eyes as they underwent another transformation. This time, they doubled in size as their furs turned red and eyes turned white.

Harry felt a pulse and looked up at the moons. There was something so familiar about it… so warm and comforting… _'Let me help you…' _Harry heard a soft feminine whisper. In his mind's eye, he saw two figures sparring in what appeared to be a dojo. It was a man and a woman, and the woman was apparently winning. _'Open your heart… love me like you did all those nights ago… let me in and we shall walk and fight… together…' _It was a seductive and husky voice, one that made shivers run down his spine. It was as if she was whispering right into his ears. Without missing another beat, Harry felt something snap inside of him and his eyes lost their focus as he stared calmly at the three enhanced werewolves.

Dean felt his rage lessen to be replaced by fear as Harry's eyes fazed out of focus and stared at them. In a soft and graceful move, Harry got into a position that he had never seen before. He was standing on one hand, or rather, the index finger of his metallic hand to be more precise. His legs were straight and together with his toes pointing towards the sky while his other arm stretched and became perpendicular to his body. The end result was what looked like an upside down and incomplete cross.

"When all five fingers are brought down, you will wish that you were never born. You have until then to back down." Harry spoke in a hollow voice, though his mouth didn't seem to move in any way. Dean shared a look with the others before they all charged at their fastest speed. They were surprised, however, as just when they were about to hit him, he disappeared and appeared behind them. He then brought both of his legs down in an arc, easily dislocating Dean's left arm and Ernie's right arm while both crashed into Michael who was in the middle.

At the three regained their composures; they looked to see Harry in the same position, this time standing on his index and middle fingers. They foolishly charged again, each aiming for a different part of Harry's body: Dean the stomach, Ernie the legs, and Michael the head. Once again their eyes widened as Harry gracefully and quickly shifted his body into a diagonal form to avoid all their attacks. As a quick follow-up move, Harry moved his legs to do a kind of splits and twirled to strike with them and his free arm. It was like a whirlwind if one were to watch from afar, which someone was.

The three landed heavily onto the ground as they saw Harry now standing on three fingers. Thinking that it was best to retreat before their lives were taken, Dean and Ernie quickly turned to run away. "This isn't over Potter!" Dean snarled before both dashed off deeper into the forest. Harry turned his gaze to Michael, who was still there, glaring at him. "They're cowards," he explained, crouching and preparing for another attack, while seeing that Harry had moved up to his pinky. He wouldn't have long, that was guaranteed.

In one final desperate attempt, Michael dropped to all fours. Harry watched without any emotion as yet another transformation took place in front of him. 'I don't care if it's not read!' The former Hogwarts student thought, focusing on all of his hate. 'I'm going to kill him!' Just then, he felt something was wrong. He looked up with fear and saw that the moons were fading. He panicked; he was still transforming… if the moon was to fade right now… it was nighttime now, but still… no full moon… what would happen? A sudden pain was his answer as he collapsed onto the floor and writhed in pain.

Harry watched too as the moons gave one final bright red glow before disappearing. Surprisingly, his own effects caused by the moon were still there. His half-conscious state and newfound skills were still there. Harry watched with fascination in the back of his mind as he saw Michael seemed to spasm before… imploding? 'That's a bit anti-climatic,' Harry thought absently as he turned to stand upright.

However, this wasn't over yet as Harry felt another presence near him. "Show yourself," he said, not liking this feeling. As he commanded a sudden figure appeared in front of him. It was strange; Harry could see two people standing in the same spot. One was a man who appeared to be a very wealthy wizard; he was strikingly handsome (though he'd never admit it) with black hair and dark eyes. His robes were made from the finest silk and were a beautiful shade of green, which contrasted well with his pale complexion. The other was less easy on the eyes; it was a very muscular man… if he could call him that. He… it had two black horns on his head and Harry couldn't see his eyes. He was wearing a strange kind of green armour with matching bat-like wings.

Not liking this person and his sickly aura, Harry unconsciously took a step backwards. Mal' Ganis, on the other hand, seemed very amused. 'This can't be Voldemort, nor can he be subject 021. However, his power levels are almost as high as mine were before I received my High Dreadlord powers… this will be interesting.' He thought as he examines the boy in front of him. 'He can see me for who I am,' he thought with a frown as he saw Harry's apprehension.

"Greetings," he said in a disarming voice, trying to see just how smart this kid was. "I am Mal' Ganis. What is your name?" Harry snapped himself out of his thought… wow… even half-conscious he could still go into a trance. Not being able to control himself, he heard himself answer. "That is none of your concern… demon!"

Mal' Ganis looked taken back before smiling again. "So what's it to you if I am a demon?" Harry narrowed his unfocused eyes. "You reek of chaos and blood, frankly, I want to spill your blood." Mal' Ganis raised an eyebrow. This wasn't going well. He was severely weakened when he came into this world through that incomplete portal. He can't fight right now.

A noise caught both of their attention as they turned to see what was causing the commotion. Right after, they saw an army of corpses moaning and walking towards them, a few dementors amongst them. Harry watched as Mal' Ganis barely raised a hand simply before waving it. Soon, a green wave that seemed similar to his gargoyle attack erupted form his hand along with a lot of feral looking bats. Within seconds, the entire army was turned to dust, even the inferi were unable to put themselves back together.

Mal' Ganis then proceeded to turn his back to Harry before starting to walk off. "Wait!" Harry said, wanting to fight the demonic being. "You'll get your chance to fight me later, but if you want to be destroyed right now," he paused, turning slightly. "Then try to survive this!"

With that, he was gone with the shadows. Harry was confused before a whistling noise was heard. Harry looked to the sky to see two comets heading straight for him. They were engulfed in emerald green flames and were moving faster than anyone had ever seen before. Too occupied with the approaching comets, Harry didn't notice his left arm glowing with the activation of the healing ritual circle. At the last possible second, Harry drew Frostmourne out of reflex and slashed it at the comet in a vain attempt to save himself. In the blink of an eye, they smashed right where Harry was causing an explosion that shook the entire Earth.

The sky was covered with green and blue lights as dust and debris were thrown everywhere. It was like something from an old war movie, with the classic mushroom cloud and heat wave. Surprisingly, nobody was hurt by the waves of heat that emanated form the collision. Though they could see one person silhouetted against the light in the sky injured badly.

Harry was… once again… in a new level of pain. He was sure that he'd reached the limit by now, and yet here he was, in the sky, still very much alive, well… barely alive anyways. His entire body was burned to a crisp and was still overwhelmed with emerald flames. As he was about to loose the last of his conscious, Harry saw something white grabbing his shoulders.

Headwig had been sent ahead to wait for her master at his "home", but half way there, she could feel something was wrong. It was proven to be true as she now clutched her battered master in her talons. She wasn't a regular wizarding owl, but nobody should know about that yet. Carrying the barely conscious form of the boy-who-lived, Headwig slowly descended near a red steam engine.

Harry, understanding where he was being led to, smashed open the window (trying to use pain to wake him from his near unconscious state) and felt himself being dropped into one of the seats in an empty compartment. Not knowing where the strength came form, Harry looked up to see his animal companion. "Headwig… thanks…" He said in a hoarse voice. "You can go and hunt for a while for now… I need to rest anyways…" Headwig gave off a hesitant hoot before flying off into the sky.

Harry gave a final breath before he closed his eyes and tried to recover from this near death situation. As he drifted to sleep, Harry cursed the name of Mal' Ganis, not noticing that a certain Metamorphmagus Auror had gasped in shock under her invisibility cloak…

End Fifth Chapter (FINALLY!)

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A/N: I liked this chapter, though it's not exactly how I wanted it, as I write I get tired and the beginning tends to be a bit different than the end. However, I still hoped that it was enjoyable and easy to understand, if there are any questions, ask away. Reminder to everyone: the next chapter would announce the review contest winners. Expect the next chapter to be out Saturday night latest and Thursday night earliest (depending on reviews and demands). I apologize if there are parts that you don't like and if you tell me I might be able to change it for the better. I think the fights were not too bad and this IS my first full fight scene. I cut back some parts from the originally planned chapter so to add more drama and make things flow better. Please tell me what you guys think. Thanks to everyone who reviewed.

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**Review responses/acknowledgements.**

**Le Grimoire: **Thanks for your thought on the new rule, along with Frisson 25 though, too. I thank you for your compliments and I must say that I really like Snuffles a lot. I hope that your questions were answered in the beginning of the chapter, though if there's anything else that you want to know about please just ask. As for the fate of Dumbledore and Frostmourne, you'll have to wait, as the next chapter should be more romance driven between Tonks and Harry. I've already decided to put Fleur into the pairing sorry, but if you can tell me what you don't like about her, maybe I can change that (perhaps her attitude?) to make the story more enjoyable. Anyway, thanks for your very informative review and hope you enjoyed this chapter.

**Makotochi: **A person can vote once every chapter until the pairings are established, however, please do not go back to review if you did not review for a past chapter. It makes me confused and disorganized as to how to organize the votes and review responses. Anyways, I hope that makes things clearer and hope you like this chapter.

**Fredryck:** It's all right, you put your e-mail in after all, and I thank you for that. I'm glad that you decided to try out and I hope you enjoy your experience. I myself have a lot of good memories and ideas that came from those stories. This is a Warcraft inspired story, what actually happened in Warcraft three might not actually be the case here. Imagine this story as an alternate universe version of the game. So Mal' Ganis isn't dead and neither is Archimonde and other characters. I like the way you want Malfoy to kill his father, as that would work perfectly with getting Narcissa into the pairing, but as we have seen in the latest book, he's not very fond of killing, and frankly, I think he'd be too chicken to do that. I might have to change Draco's attitude then, but it is a good idea. To be honest, I don't like Malfoy at all and I don't like writing about him in any situation other than humiliation and pain. So, thanks for the review and I hope you like this story so far. 

**John Steppenwolf: **Thanks for the review and I didn't make Harry sweat drop or drop to the floor anime style because this isn't anime, though I can see a person with a sweat drop expression on his or her face. Thanks for your encouragement and I hope this chapter was better for you.

**Deadwilder: **I'm glad you understood the demons part of the last chapter, if not, I hope I explained it well in this chapter. If there are any questions, don't hesitate to ask. As you can see from this chapter, Harry and Mal' Ganis aren't really the best of chums right now. I agree with your perspective of him though, but you can see that he really does have a lot of power. I'm glad that's you're a Snuffles fan like me, I really think that's one of my better ideas in this story. I'm not sure about traveling yet… but I'll see… I want to get to Hogwarts soon (I have some really wicked Quidditch scenes planned out) but there may be quite a few chapters before that though, so traveling is more like a probability. I haven't thought about Harry/Dreadlady (I still don't like the corniness of the name) being included, but it wouldn't be in this book as this book in the series is only going to be around Earth mostly. So thanks for the review and I hope you had fun reading this chapter just like I had fun writing it.

That's all for now, if you wanted a response I'm sorry, but I'm just trying to be careful right now. Now, for the pairing standings…

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**Pairing standings **so far (if you vote for "anyone is fine" then everyone gets a vote, if you vote that you don't want someone, that'll be minus one for that person):

Narcissa Black: 21

Bellatrix Black: 23

Patil Twins (both): 26

Gabrielle Delacour (age modified): 16

Padma Patil: 10

Daphne Greengrass: 16

Pansy Parkinson: 9

Hannah Abbot: 9

Susan Bones: 11

Luna Lovegood: 6

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Until next time! WINNERS OF CONTEST ANNOUNCED NEXT CHAPTER!

U-T signing off…

BYE!


	6. Unspoken Pain

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, bits of other shows and books are involved such as Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Full Metal Alchemist (not enough to actually make it a crossover).

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspects of Harry Potter other than perhaps the actual books that are published. This is written for fun and definitely not profit. I also do not own anything relating to Warcraft. Anything here you recognize, I do not own it, and otherwise, it's probably my innovation or invention.

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Arthur's Note: Once again, I'm going to thank everyone who reviewed, I'm sorry that I said I was going to update yesterday but summer's coming to a close and I want to spend more of my last days doing other things too. However, I still wanted to write this, so here it is. Sorry for it being late, as I feel that romance scenes should be written slowly and thoughtfully because of the mood you're trying to set up (not in the perverted way). Anyway, this is my first real try at a romantic scene, and since I'm a guy… I'm going to need a lot of help. If the fluff here sucks forgive me, because I'm just a guy with no experience what so ever. I think I understand the issue with responding to reviews now. I'm going to do the same as last chapter and I hope that's ok with everyone, if you want my specific thoughts on a matter, please tell me so. I'm going to stop about here now and give you guys the chapter as it's already late enough as it is. The **3**, I repeat, **3 **winners for the contest will be announced after the chapter. Also, there'll be important news that I think will make most of you happy. Now that that's all done… here's the next chapter!

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**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Six:**

**Unspoken Pain**

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From the last chapter…

Harry gave a final breath before he closed his eyes and tried to recover from this near death situation. As he drifted to sleep, Harry cursed the name of Mal' Ganis, not noticing that a certain Metamorphmagus Auror had gasped in shock under her invisibility cloak…

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Tonks was shocked. This was just too much. Here she was, in a secret compartment of the train protected by a variation of the Fidelius charm used for the Order, and suddenly a man, or what used to be a man, smashed through the window and bid his owl goodbye before collapsing onto the seats facing her. Afterwards, she didn't know what shocked her more: the fact that this man (though badly damaged, was a prime specimen of the male population) was Harry Potter, the "chosen one", or the fact that the medical examination spells she used said that he was on the brink of death, with just about every part of him tarnished.

That was about an hour ago, and since then Tonks had used an advanced Auror healing spell to bandage up all of his body, making him seem like a mummy from a muggle movie. The only openings were for his nose, mouth and right eye, which was in better condition than the rest of him. This was so that he could breathe. As soon as she's seen to it that he was comfortable, a soft light glowed before four objects appeared beside him and landed on the small compartment table between them.

She wasn't surprised to find a small blue magical dagger in its sheath on the boy-who-lived. However, she was confused at a small pink magical marble. What really baffled her and caused her to stifle her laughter was the last two items. They were 2 muggle corner store-one dollar trashy romance novels. Why he carried these, Tonks didn't know, but decided to read one of them to pass the time and to have something to blackmail Harry with once he's better.

The night continued on to around 3 in the morning, and Tonks was too absorbed in her book to see that her patient had stirred a little. (Book writing in bold italics) **_She couldn't believe how happy and relieved she was. The last time she had seen John was when they had broken up. Now after her chance of loosing him had passed, she realized just how much she needed him in her life. "Johnny!" She exclaimed, as she threw her arms around her surprised ex-boyfriend and pressed her lips upon his. John was surprised a bit before he started to enjoy the familiar lips… a pleasurable groan leaving his mouth…_**

"Ughh…" Tonks blinked. That wasn't how she guessed the groan would have sounded like. The one she heard was more pained than pleasured. She mentally slapped herself before realizing that the groan wasn't imaginary. Putting the book down, Tonks looked over to the other side to see one tired and yet somehow glowing green eye staring at her. "Harry! You're awake!" She said excitedly, glad that her young acquaintance had waken up.

Harry couldn't feel anything but pain, but even that was just felt subconsciously. He couldn't move his body, couldn't do anything. It was all he could do to speak, keep an eye open, and breathe all at the same time. He looked at a figure composed of a blur of colours. "Who are you and how… cough… do you know me?" He croaked, feeling the burning dryness in his throat.

Tonks was confused for a moment before realizing why he didn't recognize her. Tonks carefully removed her invisibility cloak and put it aside. She had forgotten her habit of wearing it like a normal cloak that she picked up after a summer of looking after Harry at his supposed "home". This didn't help Harry however, as the colours only became clearer and brighter and took the shape of a womanly figure.

He told her this, which caused her to frown. "It's really me Harry…" she said, not really knowing hoe to back up her statement. Harry thought for a moment. "Who are you in love with?" He asked. Tonks raised an eyebrow. "I hardly think this is the time…" she began but he cut her off. "I think only people I trust know who Nymphadora Tonks is in love with." Harry said tiredly, hoping for a straight answer so he can either be killed in peace or rest to try and heal.

"Now see here Harry..." Tonks said, narrowing her eyes slightly, "you might be injured, but say my name one more time, I'll fix you up so that you won't be having any offspring in the future." Expecting Harry to get nervous and quickly stutter an apology, she was surprised at what his reply was. "Maybe you should, any child of mine would only suffer like me. Besides, who would want to bare my child?" He asked bitterly. "This is off topic though. If you really are Tonks, then just tell me who you're in love with!"

Saving Harry's comment for later examination, Tonks sighed exasperatedly and answered with all of her honesty. "I don't know." Seeing Harry tense up (even though he couldn't really move) made her explain her answer. "I know you think it's Remus Harry, but I'm still confused about our relationship. We need to clear that up and while I care a lot for him, I don't know if it's that deep yet." Harry relaxed and managed a small nod.

After around ten minutes of silence, Tonks got bored. "So… what happened Harry?" She asked, trying to start a conversation. She was about to ask again, thinking that he didn't hear her, when he suddenly spoke with an urgency someone of his state shouldn't have been able to feel. "Is everyone all right? The Death Eaters' attack! How many were killed? How many..." It was his turn to be cut off. "Everyone's fine Harry, they didn't get pass our shields and they suddenly withdrew. Next thing I know, we had all of them caught and bound within the train."

Harry relaxed again; this couldn't have been good for his heart, and at such a young age. 'Even in his condition, he's more worried about the others.' Tonks thought with awe. 'He really is something special.' The silence resumed, before Tonks repeated her earlier question. Harry thought about it, deciding the whole truth would be the best, but he could still just generalize the events. After all, he didn't want Tonks to think he was bragging and trying to hog all the glory. He didn't want her to turn out like his old friends.

So Harry told her his tale. However, some parts he had to lie about. For example, he said that he only helped the school defenders and didn't take the enemy down by himself. Also, he didn't tell her about Dean's bunch, and what he knew about the werewolf battle. So basically, he only helped with the school defense before coming to the train to see that no one was attacking the train. In the end though, he had to spare some truths and told her about a strange creature and had struck him with meteorites.

Tonks listened intently and could tell that there was more to it then what Harry said, but decided not to say anything about it now because of his condition. "How did you survive that though?" She asked, thinking that something as huge as a meteorite would be able to crush anyone in an instant. "I can only be killed by Voldemort." He said with an air that read, "Don't ask."

Soon, the two were silent again. Harry was looking out his window, still immobilized. "Why?" He thought out loud, not able to keep it in anymore. Tonks looked at him questioningly, wondering what he meant. "Why am I the way I am?" She remained silent, thins time not knowing the answer being her reason. Harry turned his gaze towards her. She felt the pain in his eyes and it broke her heart to see anyone like that.

"Why am I such a terrible person?" This time Tonks was shocked. What did he mean by that? He wasn't a terrible person. Could this be about Sirius? However, he theory was wrong as Harry thought back to recent events. "Do you think I'm selfish and insensitive too?" Ok, so the insensitive part was his own addition, but after than whole episode, he could only think about all of his negative points.

"You're not a horrible person Harry." Tonks said gently and confidently. As if to emphasize her point, she walked over to him and sat down while gently taking a hold of his head and putting it on her lap. "You're too easy on me." Harry said in a monotone, avoiding her questioning eyes. He could see her clearer now. It was probably because of his magical eye that he couldn't see her before.

"Everywhere I go I need a guard, a baby sitter. All the while other people's children are hurt and left uncared for. I take the glory from everything and everyone. I took Hufflepuff's fame in my fourth year, and so many countless other acts against the other houses." He paused here to look into Tonks's eyes again. "After Sirius died, your patronus changed, while mine remained the same. I wasn't even affected enough to have my patronus change…" Harry drifted off from there, a single tear sliding down his cheek.

Tonks didn't know what to say to all this. She couldn't really say anything about it because in reality, she didn't really know anything about Harry's life. Remaining in her silence, Tonks did the only thing she could think of at the moment, she wiped his tears and brought his head over her heart. She could fell his pain, and knew that he in turn could feel hers and feel that he caused it.

They stayed like that, neither saying a word about their more than intimate position. Both looked out the window to see the still greenish black sky caused by Mal' Ganis. Something big was going to happen, if it didn't already happen. In the glow of the moon and the warmth that Harry felt from Tonks, he realized that he could move now, and that his head seemed to have been compressed. Getting up, he saw that Tonks had fallen asleep. He unwrapped the bandages of his left arm first, hoping to see it being the cause of his rapid healing.

He was happy to find that it indeed was the case as it was glowing a soft blue. Harry continued to unwrap himself until only his lower body (he had at least some decency) and Un-Arm was covered (he didn't want any questions about it). It was as it he hadn't been hurt at all, though he couldn't help but feel that it wasn't just his left arm that helped him heal. With his body somewhat back to normal though extremely exhausted, Harry stood beside the window to think about watch the sunrise, ignoring the items on the table.

Tonks woke up to a sight that she would never forget. The rising sun illuminated Harry's body perfectly. His skin was perfect, much more different then just a few hours before. She knew that this wasn't how Harry looked like before, but she also knew that this was the same Harry that had helped her get over Sirius acting like a solid foundation for her to fall back on.

That was the reason why she had followed Harry around for quite a while after she first saw him during the last summer. He didn't look like he was affected much, though she could tell he was suffering unconsciously. She had admired him for that, even looked up to him. Ever since then, she thought of him when the loss of Sirius seemed to weigh more than usual down upon her. It never occurred to her that it was a sign of insensitivity, but she could understand how Harry felt that way.

She quietly got up from her position and got behind Harry before engulfing him in a hug from the back. She was surprised to feel how hard his back was and the fact that his hair reached to around her waist height. Harry had gotten taller too. He tensed a little at the contact, but relaxed soon afterwards. Without thinking, Tonks turned him to face her and placed her right hand over his heart.

"Let me help you subdue your pain." She asked, wanting to help ease the troubles that he carried. He had seen more than some of the oldest wizards and yet he still maintained his resolve and sanity. She wanted to help him deal with it and try to get some relief in his hectic life. Harry shook his head in the negative, while going through his automatic reply. "I can't possibly ask you to do that."

Looking up into his deep emerald eyes, Tonks shook her head slightly. "I'm not saying you can ask me to if you want me too. I'm asking you to let me because I want to?" Harry's face remained emotionless for a while, though Tonks could see that he was fighting within himself. "Why?" He asked, understandably confused at her request.

Tonks buried her face into his chest. "I don't know. Please, just let me." She asked, with an almost pleading voice. Harry lifted her face up so that they were looking into each other again. He placed his bandaged hand over her heart, slightly blushing when he unintentionally brushed her breast causing her to gasp softly. "Only if you'll let he help heal your wounds too." He said in a calming voice.

That day, their unspoken pact was made. They would stay by each other through thick and thin for no reason that they can comprehend other than that they wanted desperately to help each other. Little do they know that their reasons were beyond this time. Their reason was in another time and world, one in which their feelings were legendary.

They had both matured, as Tonks, while an adult legally, was a child inside. They didn't know when it happened, but knew that they had to step out of the protective shell of innocence and childhood to take their roles in history…

(END CHAPTER SIX)

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A/N: Ok, this chapter was really bad in my opinion, but I had to get the point across and I'm not the most experienced guy when it comes to romance. I'm sorry if it wasn't something you liked and I'll try to make it better next time. Expect future updates later as school is starting. But if I'm lucky, I'll probably be able to update at LEAST once a week. Please tell me what you guys think of this chapter and for the girls and more romantically experienced guy, give me some pointers on romance… pretty please? I'm sorry but there'll be no review responses today… I have a major headache and I'm not feeling too well. I promise to respond next chapter and if there's something you want to ask me about, please do. Thanks to everyone who've reviewed (especially those who've review more than once) and a special thank you to Roter Draconis who's reading this even though it might be difficult for him to read because he's German.

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**Pairing standings **so far (if you vote for "anyone is fine" then everyone gets a vote, if you vote that you don't want someone, that'll be minus one for that person):

Narcissa Black: 32

Bellatrix Black: 33

Gabrielle Delacour (age modified): 20

Padma Patil: 10

Daphne Greengrass: 20

Hannah Abbot: 10

Susan Bones: 13

Luna Lovegood: 8

Cho Chang (can't believe I forgot her!): 1

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**IMPORTANT NEWS!**

As some of you might notice, there are some names removed from the votes, that's because they're either guaranteed in the pairings or guaranteed to being not in the pairings. Tonks and Fleur are DEFINITELY going to be part of the pairings.

RECENT: the amount of votes for the Patil twins is staggering and with (I think) only one negative vote. Therefore, the Patil twins are also GUARENTEED into the pairings. Relatively, Pansy has received the most negative votes; therefore she's definitely NOT going to be in the pairings.

There are around three more slots for girls, choose from above or someone else if I forgot them. Also, if any of you want an OC for Harry, that's fine too… let your imaginations go wild!

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**WINNERS OF THE CONTEST (FINALLY!)**

**Arc Angel Michael!** (Chosen randomly)

**Lord Nithilius!** (The 100th reviewer… if I counted correctly that is)

**Fredryck! **(As a welcoming present for being new to have a safe trip to the U.S)

These are the winners and there's no changing it. Each of you gets one request from me that is pretty reasonable. However, they may not include more than 1 extra chapter upload. Also, each of you must make a different request so as to have variety. You can guarantee your favourite girl into the pairings; ask to be made an OC in the story (as Harry's new rival, right hand man, mentor, etc.), or something else… but you tell me and if I think it's reasonable, I'll do it! For the rest of you, don't worry, there may be more contests like this one in the future (I'm thinking once every 10-20 chapters?).

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That's all for now guys…

U-T signing off…

Bye!


	7. To Run And To Live

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, bits of other shows and books are involved such as Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Full Metal Alchemist (not enough to actually make it a crossover).

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspects of Harry Potter other than perhaps the actual books that are published. This is written for fun and definitely not profit. I also do not own anything relating to Warcraft. Anything here you recognize, I do not own it, and otherwise, it's probably my innovation or invention.

Arthur's Note: I think I'm late in updating again… sorry… but I have so many ideas that it's getting a bit hard. Also… school starts tomorrow for me… major bummer. I want to update once a week… but since there's my other story… it might be around three times a month instead (meaning that it's like… three updates this story, one update the other, three this, one other, etc.). Thank you to everyone that reviewed, I think I'm going to be responding to reviews today, but still only the main ones from last chapter. I've put a lot of thought into the first scene of the chapter, but I don't really know too much about the Australian outback and the traditions of the villages there and such. Therefore, I apologize for any offence that a reader may take due to how much I make up. I could do research, but I think you would rather have this chapter out first. That's all I really wanted to say… so therefore, here's the next twist… I mean chapter!

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**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Seven:**

**To Run And To Live**

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It was late afternoon as the common folk of the Suk Nax village prepared for the night. Parents went about gathering up their children (some of the more "energetic" ones had to be caught by the village lower rank warriors). Guards of the village entrances switched shifts to return to their families for well-deserved meals. The elderly and the village council made their way contentedly towards the great fire that had been started in the middle of the village. Today was slightly different though, as children and adults alike were invited to the gathering for a monthly celebration. 

As the sun fully set on the horizon, huge portions of meat, fruits and vegetables were taken out for cooking in the bonfire. The feast has begun as the dancers got out wearing little actual clothing and various headdresses and decorations along with markings on their lithe bodies. Various songs started with varying drumbeats as the dancers moved about the fire with rugged grace unseen in the modern society. With their movements, they spoke of great ancient heroes, their tales, and many other such topics.

After a few minutes, the food was being distributed, while the tempo of their exotic music slowed to a more relaxed pace. The dancers in turn moved more slowly and more gracefully in sync with the gentle breezes around them. All hearts were content as this continued, before they swelled up with happiness as the dancing picked up again after the meal. This time, many small children and the more carefree adults joined in, each adding their soundless voices to the story and sound. The laughter was contagious, and soon everyone clapped along as the wizened village chieftain joined in, seeming impossibly fit and flexible for someone of his age.

The Suk Naxans were a happy people, as could be seen through this event. Their village was one of the chosen 9, each of which held a secret that is a part of something much more important in the grand scheme of life. The villages were to protect their respective pieces until what legends say the Roven (own invention) will come to claim them to bring peace to the world. Different tales tell of different qualities of the beast, though three things were fundamental: the Roven was the offspring of the clever raven and the kind dove, the Roven was silver in colour, and the Roven was cursed with pain on the behalf of those he cared about.

It has been many generations since the founding of their village, and the tradition has still been kept. To help keep the future generations aware of their uniqueness from the other tribes of the Australian outback, the village holds a celebration once a month for the village shaman to tell the story of the Roven's past. In fact, it was about time now, for the shaman to speak.

A puff of red smoke and small bang signaled the need for everyone to become quiet. Used to this display, the villagers quickly quieted to hear the story of their origins once again. The story had been changed with each passing shaman, though they all made sure to tell the main point for sure.

The smoke cleared as the atmosphere became excited and expectant. From the middle of the flames, a man wearing a large multicoloured mask appeared, holding a bone staff that was made from a bone of the Roven (or so it was said). The mysterious shaman stepped from the flames and began to speak in a booming voice. (This is translated, if it was a T.V show, this would be subtitled.)

"Settle down my children, for your father has a tale. Hush my loves, for your love whishes to speak. Be quiet my father, for your son has brought news. Silence my warriors, for wisdom is the sharpest arrow. Have peace my guests, for we will teach you our ways. Calm down mother Earth, for we want to hear a story. Remain tranquil father sky, for we learn of your child." Near the end of the speech, the village shaman had nearly been talking in a whispered voice, as his volume had been dropping throughout his dialogue.

By now, almost everything was silent, except for the chirping of various creatures and animals and the soft whistle of the gentle breeze. "Now hear my story, given onto me by our ancestors. This is the tale that speaks of our lives, our purpose, and our futures. The story takes place before the beginning of the village, a time so far away that one would wonder if time has a beginning. We start with the Raven… clever and unpredictable…"

And so the story started, capturing everyone's attention. As usual, the story would go on for hours until three days have passed. Children had gone to sleep and awake at various points throughout the tale, while the adults were able to stay awake for they were used to this. Guards had to change shifts, but they had already known the story by their hearts. The elderly too, know the story by heart, and thus they helped prepare the food for he gathering.

By the evening of the third day (I'm not too sure about changing time zones, so forgive me if this is wrong) and the end of the story, something miraculous occurred. The night sky turned green and blue. All that were awake saw it, and felt fear in their hearts. "Alas! The omen of the first obstacle!" Cried the shaman, almost completely forgetting about the story that he was ending before. The villagers, having known the prophecy by heart, did as they were forewarned to do.

Within two hours (they were really prepared) everything in the village has changed. Each and every hut was empty, all provisions were packed and everyone was ready. All those that are not village hunters, warriors, or guards were beginning to abandon town. However, there were around two units of high ranked warriors and one unit of town guards that were escorting them. A small pack of hunters were also allowed to leave with the group, though they were sent more for providing emergency food instead of fighting.

The atmosphere was tense with sorrow and dread. One wouldn't have been able to tell that this village and the village hours ago were the same. Loved ones were saying their last goodbyes before finally, the time for departure had come. Once more than half of the village had been evacuated, the warriors began to set up traps and fortify the village walls (which were really just reinforced fences).

After another hour or so, everyone did what they could and waited for the inevitable to come. There was only one more thing to be done before whatever evil it was would confront them. They needed the village's four great protectors to come. As soon as they would get there, they thought that everything would be all right.

* * *

As the night became darker and thicker, the air around them became incredibly cold. It wasn't long after that they saw a dark figure walking towards them. There was only one person that was approaching them, but they knew not to underestimate their enemy as many of them were young and were underestimated themselves during their trials. As the figure came into the firelight, they saw a fearsome warrior. His tanned skin matched perfectly with his black hair and eyes. He was dressed similar to their fashion and wore the headdress of a fearsome warrior. 

Before any words could be exchanged, the warrior triggered a trap and dozens of arrows were sent his way. When the resulting cloud of dust cleared, everyone was surprised that each and every one of the arrows had missed the warrior. He continued to move towards the village entrance, carrying a smirk that sent shivers down the bravest warrior's body. As he neared the village gates, the shaman approached him.

"Be gone you vile demon!" He shouted as he opened a small pouch and withdrew a small glowing fruit before breaking it to withdraw its nectar. Dripping the liquid on his staff, it glowed a soft green before it transformed into a spear. All of this took surprisingly a small amount of time before the spear was thrust into the direction of the strange soldier.

From what the ancestors had told him, once the spear was thrust into the demon, it should be defeated. However, it seemed that even after generations of passing this on, nobody realized to train the shaman for close combat with a spear. They paid dearly for their mistake and the demon easily dodged the attack before gripping the old man by his throat. This seemed to snap the attention of the village defenders before they all charged towards the demon.

However, with a wave of his free hand, everyone else stopped in their tracks before falling instantly into a deep slumber. Turning his gaze back towards the wrinkled man in his hand, he spoke in a deep and hollow voice. "Know today, that your village crumbles under the force of Mal' Ganis." With that last sentence as a farewell, Mal' Ganis snapped the neck of the shaman.

He then dropped the old man before closing his eyes and placing one of his palms onto the ground. A circle with various markings appeared before he began to chant. A sign that resembled something of a pentagram appeared on top of each of the slumbering warriors as their eyes began to open.

Glancing at their fallen shaman, the warriors shouted in fury before charging towards the Dreadlord. At least, they tried to charge before those closest to then fell into a strange trance as a green aura enveloped them. A few more seconds later, they awoke once more, this time with blank eyes and pale skin.

The fighters farther away looked on in confusion before those that were changed charged them with inhumane wails. Fear struck the hearts of those who were unaffected before each either fell dead or joined the ranks of their corrupted brethren. Those who managed to snap out of their trance began to fight back in vain before retreating to regroup and plan a move from there.

Once gathered in a small circle of about two-dozen warriors, their enemies halted in their tracks. Their confused expressions soon turned into ones of pure horror as their fallen companions were consumed in more light (this time yellow) before two skeletons stood in place of each dead body. Each skeleton brandished a scimitar and shield.

As each of the survivors tried to fight the coming unconsciousness that meant their own corruption, they failed to hear a shout in the distance. It appeared that the protectors of the village had arrived, but it was too late for the original defenders. They each allowed the darkness to take over them after praying for forgiveness and hoping that their families will be happy.

Two figures were approaching the battle scene, though when they got there the battle was over. There before them was an army of undead and corrupted Suk Naxan warriors. Both turned towards the center of all this to find a well built stranger with a questionable aura radiating about him. "Who are you?" One of them asked, looking at the aura barer while keeping his defense up.

Mal' Ganis sighed and shook his head slightly before answering. "Before I answer, is there anyone else that wants to know? I'm really getting tired of introducing myself over and over again." Seeing that both newcomers did not respond to his lighthearted attempt of easing the tension, Mal' Ganis did quick work to say his name.

"Hmm… I should conserve my forces…" The demon spawn thought out loud. He snapped his fingers and motioned for his army to back off and retreat. A blinding yellow light engulfed all of the once proud Suk Naxan warriors before they all disappeared, leaving behind only Mal' Ganis and his two new opponents. "I think I deserve to know your names?" He asked, more of a command than anything else.

The two arrivals narrowed their eyes before answering. "I am brother Scorpion." The one with spiked black hair and brown eyes stated. "I am sister Cobra." His companion said, with dirty blond hair that isn't seen often around the area and a strange shade of purple for her eyes. They both wore relatively the same thing, though there were obvious differences due to different genders. Scorpion was only wearing pants made of some hide or another while his apparent sister wore the same and a small white shirt and brown vest to cover her upper body.

Now, one may wonder why Mal' Ganis did not simply corrupt these two the same way he did the others, but there was a reason for that. These two were different. Upon sight Mal' Ganis could tell that these were real shamans. They weren't the type of shaman like that old idiot that he had dealt with. Rather, they were the serious ones that could summon and use spirits to fight him.

While corrupting and controlling them is possible, Mal' Ganis simply didn't have the power to do so at the moment. His trip from the other world had taken a good portion of his energy and not all of it had returned yet. "I don't have time for this." Mal' Ganis said to himself as he snapped his fingers again.

This time, two pillars of yellow light appeared along with a sound that resembled rushing water (those who played Warcraft three, I know this is a crappy description of the sound, but give me a break, eh?). Once the light cleared up, two people appeared behind Mal' Ganis, awaiting orders.

They too, were a man and a woman. However, their dress was much different than the brother and sister. The man had short wild black hair and dark eyes (they couldn't make out or care whether it was black or a dark brown). There was a blue cloth mask that covered from his nose down to the base of his neck, obstructing the view of his actual face.

There was a small slash over his left eye, but other than that, his pale skin seemed to be perfect and soft. He was also very muscular. While he wasn't as wide or broad shouldered as Mal' Ganis or some of the other previous defenders, he did have an air about him that screamed physical power. His lean chest was covered with a sleeveless shirt that clung to his muscles. The shirt was of the same colour and same material of his mask. One would wonder if the two articles of clothing were one. There were two dark belts that crossed his chest, making an "x" shape along his front and his back.

His forearms and the back of his hands were protected with silver buckler-type armour and his hands were covered with gauntlets (same colour) that were without fingertips. Another silver belt kept his baggy black pants onto him and his ensemble was finished off with black steel-toed boots. From what Scorpion and Cobra could see, his main weapon of choice was a great two-handed broadsword that was attached to his back.

His partner was similarly dressed, though instead of blue, she kept her outfit entirely in black. There was the same style mask, which only showed her opponents her sharp and brilliant green eyes and flaming red hair that reached to the small of her back in a ponytail. She didn't wear belts over her small black t-shirt; though along with the belt that held up her form-fitting black jeans were various gold and silver chains. From what anyone can see, her weapons of choice were two staves that were strapped to her slender back.

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, both looked rather bored and uninterested in what was going on. The man was putting all of his weight on his left foot, while his right leg was bent slightly, making it seem like he was leaning on thin air when coupled with his crossed arms. There was a small golden orb of light that was zooming around him, which he could catch and then release over random intervals of time. At his actions, his partner seemed to look a bit annoyed as one hand was on her waist while her other arm was dropped at her side rather limply.

Mal' Ganis sighed a bit before looking at his opponents. "I suppose you would want to know their names as well." He said dryly, before gesturing towards his subordinates. "James and Lily, meet Scorpion and Cobra. Some thing vice versa… yadda… yadda… yadda…"

There was another sigh before Mal' Ganis took on a more serious tone. "Lily, you're coming with me to catch the others from this village. James, you take care of these brats." With that, the girl, Lily, placed a hand on James's shoulder tenderly. In response, he gave a small nod before Lily and Mal' Ganis disappeared.

"Damn! We have to get to the villagers before them!" Scorpion said, as he and his sister began running in the direction of the evacuees. Before they could take more than three steps, however, an explosion occurred in front of them, causing both the fall backwards. As the smoke cleared, James's small gold orb of light appeared in a small crater. With a flick of his hand, the small ball returned to him.

"Sorry kiddies," James said, actually sounding apologetic. "I can't let you guys go, orders are orders." Unlike Mal' Ganis, the two didn't feel any maliciousness from the James person. While he did not seem human, he did not seem evil either. The siblings exchanged a look before giving each other a small nod. "King Scorpion!" The male defender shouted as several streaks of aqua light rushed towards him to for the shape of a giant scorpion. "Desert Hydra!" His sister responded as a similar event occurred, though a dark purple colour.

The situation was simple; James was standing before two giant creatures created of spiritual energy. However, despite panicking or running away like someone else might have, he merely yawned. "So… I'm supposed to shout out a fancy name while attacking right?" He asked lazily before raising his hand and pointing his palm towards the two shamans.

"Umm… big meteor-that-really-is-a-snitch attack…" he said half heartedly, though loud enough for the other two to hear. As soon as James finished "declaring his attack" a golden ball the size of Godzilla with four wings rocketed towards his enemies, shattering their beasts on contact. The two shamans fell towards the ground at an alarming speed before Scorpion reacted and re-summoned his beast, which in turn cushioned their fall.

Both coughed up a bit of blood, but were otherwise determined to fight him. "Ultimate poison!" Both shouted at the same time, making James flinch a little due to the noise. A small while afterwards, something that looked like a hybrid between a scorpion and a king cobra materialized in the place of the original scorpion. Deciding to waste no time, they commanded their combined creature to strike their opponent.

Their hearts became light as the strike hit dead on target; the fangs of the cobra had run through the chest of the enemy. Their happiness was short-lived as their eyes then widened in horror when the fang withdrew. This was when they distinctly heard James sigh in annoyance. Instead of spilling blood or creating a bloody wound, they basically punctured a black hole (not the type in space that sucks everything up, just a literal black hole) in his body. Soon afterwards, a black gas began to leak out of the wound at a near impossible rate. It wasn't long before the sibling shamans fell to the ground and their combined summon dissolved. The poison quickly killed the two.

James quickly fixed his shirt and his body regenerated itself. He then proceeded towards the bodies of the dead shamans to salvage them for Mal' Ganis. As he neared them, he quickly jumped back to avoid arrow. "Don't touch them!" Said a voice raw with emotion. He looked up quickly to find an old and frail man. "What did you do to my children?" He shouted, though probably already knowing the answer. "I was ordered to kill them. They did put a good fight though, you should be proud." He said cheerily, though nobody sane would really be happy in this situation.

The old man charged towards James, hoping to avenge his children, but even though he used to be one of the greatest protectors of the village when he was in his prime, he was nowhere near James's power now. And so, with one quick punch to the stomach, the old man fell. "Curse you!" He said, looking at him, "Who are you? Who would not let a father mourn for his children? Who aim to take the bodies of another man's offspring?"

James tilted his head a bit in confusion as he answered. "James Nathaniel Potter (I don't really know if he has a real middle name, but I just thought this was a cool name)" The old man spat at the ground in contempt as he looked at James. "You are a necromancer!" He shouted accusingly, finding a reason why James might want the bodies of his children. "You won't get them!" He said, voice going hoarse. The man concentrated for a moment before a white light engulfed the bodies of his children and the carcasses disappeared entirely.

Afterwards, the man looked at James again before smiling nastily. "Cursed be onto you!" He said as a red light began to form a link between the two. "May you one day feel the pain of having your children be killed before your eyes at the hands of a merciless killer! May their bodies be forever corrupted while you die of the guilt of being the cause of their suffering!" His smile grew wider and wider as the red light between them became stronger and stronger.

James's eyes widened as he struggled to catch his breath. The area where his heart would have been had he been alive pulsated as his body trembled with spasms of pain. The old man's smile left his face, however, at the red light was severed and a blue one was left in its wake. James gave off an inhumane smile as he savored the confusion and dread of the man underneath him. "Unlike your children," James said, as he began to regain sanity, "Mine is protected by fate." He laughed at the shocked expression of the man before continuing. "Besides, while it does hurt me a lot, you cannot place a curse on me. In fact, you cannot place a curse on anyone who is already dead." Before the man could register what was said, a flash of metal was all he saw as he drifted into the realm of death.

James stood up and gave a small sigh before picking up the body of the old man and heading towards the location of Mal' Ganis and Lily. It wasn't the best, but it was a decent body with quite a bit of spiritual energy despite its physical weakness.

When James arrived at the site of where Mal' Ganis was, he quickly saw that everything was finished here. It had been a quick repeat of what had happened at the abandoned village site. Quickly, the Dreadlord's new forces disappeared once more leaving only Mal' Ganis and the once dead Potters. James quickly gave a brief account of his battle before explaining why he was only able to bring the body that he did.

With the old shaman's spear (the one that was supposed to hit him) and various other small magical artifacts, Mal' Ganis nodded approvingly before saying his good bye and dismissing the two. James and Lily disappeared in a flash of light before his eyes, leaving him alone on the battlefield.

The Dreadlord smiled as he thought about his decision to revive James and Lily Potter, two of the strongest of those that were dead when he first arrived. This was turning out quite nicely. Many of his objectives were almost finished. He still had some thing to do though.

"You can come out now." He said, knowing there was someone that was watching him. A boy of about 12 years of age appeared, looking wearily at him. "If you want to have revenge for your family, go after a boy named Harry Potter, son of the man who killed them. If you want revenge for your village, try and attack me."

The boy was still with fear, wanting revenge but also afraid for his life. Mal' Ganis turned towards the boy and tossed the shaman's spear towards him. Would you like me to take you to him? After you kill him, you will be stronger. You may become strong enough to kill me. All you have to do, is beg me for mercy, and I'll take you to him."

With tears in his eyes caused by his hatred towards himself and this man before him, the boy got onto his knees and hands. That night, Mal' Ganis had his first real laugh in a long time, watching as the boy cowered and begged in front of him. It was also that night that another person became an enemy of Harry Potter. His name… Suk Naxa… named after a destroyed village of which he is the sole survivor.

* * *

Harry blinked as he woke up. He didn't remember much of what happened the night before, but he found himself in a rather comfortable position. Tonks was snuggled comfortably against his side. It was then that he remembered what had happened before he fell asleep. 

He looked down with a soft smile. Yes, he wasn't alone in this, he reminded himself again. Harry then looked down at himself to see that he was still in the same state of undress as the previous evening. Examining Tonks, he finally found her wand in her pocket but failed to notice that she had awakened.

The problem was that the pocket was located on her rear and Harry just had to try and move to get it gently (he still thought she was asleep). Just before he was about to touch her wand, Tonks suddenly grasped his wrist and sat up pining him with a cold glare. "What do you think you're doing?" She asked in a cold tone with narrowed eyes. "Umm… borrowing your wand?" Harry replied confused about why there was this sudden change in attitude. Needless to say, what happened next caused the whole train to wake up.

It was a good thing that the compartment was hidden, because after a while, there was quite a crowd gathered around where their compartment door would have been had it not been hid with magic. Harry and Tonks both too a moment to breathe before Tonks started firing spells at Harry again, completely forgetting about last night. As a particular spell shot out of Tonks's wand and hit Harry's still bandaged arm, he gave out a cry of pain before collapsing onto the floor.

Thinking that he was faking it (after all, how could a tickling charm hurt someone?) Tonks grabbed Harry by the collar before seeing something gray beneath the bandages. Quickly unwrapping the bandages, Tonks gasped at what she saw. "Ha-Harry…" She stammered, not knowing what to say. "Your arm!" Harry looked at the Un-Arm and gasped too. Where once there would have been a shiny metallic arm, now it was completely made of stone, as if the entire thing had rusted and degraded.

Quickly grabbing Tonks's wand and conjuring cloths onto himself (standard black robes and cloak with sneakers), Harry grabbed the items he had noticed earlier from the table and stuffed them into a pocket. Then he sighed and sat down, motioning for Tonks to do the same across from him.

The next hour was spent with questions and explanations, though it was still rather awkward. During the time, however, Harry realized that the small pink orb was the resting Snuffles and attached it to a small-conjured fang before wearing it like an earring. While Tonks raised an eyebrow at the teen's actions, she did not mention anything as she continued with her question.

When the long talk was over, the train had started moving though faster than either of them was used to. There was silence in the compartment afterwards, as Harry returned Tonks's wand to her. They were both lost in their thoughts before their compartment door was thrown open.

Both occupants inside the compartment stared in shock at Hermione, Ron and Ginny while in turn; the three stared back (or rather, stared at Harry's scar). "Harry?" Hermione asked, eyes widen and mouth agape. The other two were along the same lines of thought. "Um… hi?"

There was another small period of silence before a small shriek was heard as Hermione and Ginny both tackled Harry in a tight hug. Unable to control himself, Harry let out a rather noticeable pained gasp. This caused the two to let go of him rather quickly before asking what was wrong. Harry quickly lied about something or rather along the lines of tripping before assuring his friends that he was all right. In all honest, he didn't remember a word that he said.

It was then that Harry noticed the conditions of his friends. Ron didn't count too much, because he looked fine and normal. However, Ginny's eyes were red and Hermione seemed pale. The three settled down as they began to talk. They told him and Tonks about how Hermione used every tracking and revealing charm she knew to find the door due to the commotion that was caused around here earlier and then trying various unlocking spells. When those didn't seem to work Ron was getting impatient so he decided the old "blow 'em up!" style of opening doors, and now there they were.

They all had a good laugh, though Harry could feel that something was wrong. Hermione continued to look pale and if asked if she were ok, she'd just put on a fake smile and say everything was fine no matter now many times you asked. Ginny kept staring at him, even when someone else was talking to her she would still keep her gaze on Harry. Now that Harry thought about it, all of his friends were staring at him. All three of the females were staring at him in a similar fashion, but he couldn't quite tell what they wanted. Ron's stare was just plain freaky, until he saw the same gaze that he had gotten from Ron so many times before. He was jealous.

Putting one and one together, Harry realized they wanted him to explain about his sudden changes. However, he was too preoccupied with other things at the moment, like how he could get in touch with Dumbledore again and why was his arm made of stone. Thus the train-ride continued with small talk and continuous stares. That is, until Ron lost his patience once more.

"All right Harry," Ron said, letting his annoyance show. "What the hell happened to you?" The other occupants of the compartment flinched at his voice while Harry remained impassive, something that made Ron even angrier. "What do you mean?" He asked, trying to find a way to avoid answering the question. "You know pretty well what I mean." Ron said coolly, with an equal amount of anger and curiosity.

"If I did then would I ask you what you meant?" This was a bit sneaky, as it implied that Harry really didn't know what he meant, while technically, it was a question. Ron scratched his head in frustration before his head shot up indicating that he had a brilliant idea. "I'll play you for it." Harry, not really paying attention, as he was lost in his thoughts again, nodded. "Sure, pick a game."

With the blink of an eye, a wizarding chess set was put out before them with the pieces set and everything ready. Ron, being white, made his move readily before waiting for Harry to move. Harry, in his defense, still wasn't paying too much attention and thus just played what his instincts told him too.

Five minutes in the game, Ron was getting a headache. Harry was just too confusing in this match. There were several occasions where he could have taken Ron's queen, but Harry just ignored it and did other moves. While this would have been welcome in Ron's mind, he noticed that whenever Harry moved differently, he was FORCED to move to certain places. Ron Weasley was being FORCED to move in chess, this was unheard of.

Though quickly, many pieces were shattered. Any traps Ron set up Harry rushed into eagerly, if just for the massacre that followed. If any of his pieces were able to check the king up to two moves ahead, Harry would pull defensive positions like there was no tomorrow. If Ron did delaying or defensive moves, Harry would go berserk with his pieces, using his pieces like suicide bombers in an all-out offense.

In the end of the match, both players had one pawn and one king left. However, Ron had another pawn near the other one. Instead of trying to advance his own pawn, Harry just continued to maneuver his king until Ron had no choice but to let one of his pawns get taken down. When Ron went after Harry's pawn in a sort of bluff-move (to get him to leave his other pawn alone) Harry actually ignored his piece's shouts about moving it and continued after Ron's second last piece.

Needless to say, it resulted in a stalemate much to the surprise of everyone watching. Before Ron could blow up with frustration, the train surprisingly stopped at platform nine and three quarters already. Before anyone could even say, "we're here", a huge blast and several cracks were heard in the hallways between compartments. For the second time that day, their compartment door was thrown open…

End Chapter Seven

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A/N: Wow, that was kind of random. It was a spur of the moment thing to have Harry's parents back to life. Oh well… please tell me what you guys think. Once again, I'm sorry if anyone took any offence to my wording of certain phrases or if I insulted someone with my ignorance of the Australian traditions. I should be able to update once a week from now on… but I'm not sure if they'll all be this long. Forgive me if I don't update on time though… it's a school thing as I'm sure everyone can understand. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and here are your responses.

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**REVIEW RESPONSES:**

**Arc Angel Michael:** I have my ways of pairing up Harry with the people you stated, however, I'm not so sure anymore about the black sisters due to the surprising about of people that DON'T want them. It's not that much… but I think almost ten for each now. I'm still probably going to include them… but I'm having doubts. Anyways, I agree with you about rushing romance, and I'm trying to hold it off. But last chapter was when Harry's experiencing the more emotional damages of the fight and it was an almost perfect time for comforting love. I also await your request… I'm sure it's going to be fun (I have a feeling).

**Makotochi:** Thank you for reviewing. I've taken into account about what you've said and hope in the end the result is to your liking. While it is true that Bellatrix and Narcissa are somewhat "evil", Narcissa is also described as being really hot (not direct quote… but the idea's there). I don't remember about Bellatrix though. These are considered more exotic pairings and are basically for a change in pace and a challenge for the writer/author. I hope that explains why people want them and I'm interested in writing about that. Though feel free to make your input.

**John Steppenwolf: **That's a rather interesting review. Umm… I think you have a right idea there about what Harry's appearance was like. However… I was thinking more along the lines of Onigumo (from Inuyasha if you watch it) in all his bandages. Though it's only appearance though… Harry's not a sadistic bastard that would sell his body to demons… would he? About the negative points… it's only to see if there are more people that don't want to see a person compared to people who want to see them. It's not a perfect plan, but I think it's fair. And I really would have liked it if you didn't suggest Dr. J because now I keep on thinking about giving Harry a Gundam. It's not going to happen in this book at least though but now I can't stop thinking about it. Thanks for your review. P.S: Harry didn't dump Ginny, they mutually agreed to split up. It was in the last chapter, I think, near the end in Dumbledore's funeral. I hope that helps, if you want a page number or something, please tell me.

**Silvertrust:** I know I said to respond to the longer reviews but I think I should clear up the fact that I can't understand German, though it would be interesting to learn it. Anyways, I'm glad that you like this story and I hope you can give me a translation of what you said in this review?

**Lord Nithilius: **Your wish is my command (this one anyways). So basically you want Harry to have a human arm (at least in appearance) but still the same abilities? I think that it. If that's not what you meant or if you want to change your request, please tell me. Anyways… thanks for your support.

**Deadwilder:** Thanks for your review. The end for this chapter was a bit rushed, because I wanted to get it out today, so I hope it's not too bad. There's going to be more… in-depth parts of his friends' reactions in the next chapter. As I've said before… the relationships are going to come slowly… I'm more of an action and violence guy… plus it's hard for me to write romance… but it'll still be there though.

**Mrriddler: **I've taken everything you've said into consideration. I wouldn't say this is a story based on other ideas if the plot is concerned, but you are entitled to your own opinion. What I'm planning is much more different than the original Warcraft storyline, though the characters are used. This is only because I like the game and characters… though I do appreciate you review.

**Flametongue: **Thanks for your review and I understand where you're coming from with your opinions. I think you should keep more of an open mind though as you can't just label Bellatrix the evil (fill in space hint: means female dog). That's what I think one of the purposes of fan fiction is. It's for a writer to interpret and plan the actions of their favourite characters in the ways that they feel most comfortable in. While I do not care too much what other people think of various ships and my ideas, I would like to ask you to respect what other people want and like in terms of shipping. I don't mean to sound cocky or anything… but that's just my opinion. There are some really good stories with Harry Bellatrix pairings. Though once again, you are entitled to your own opinion. Thanks for you input though… I like looking at things through various perspectives.

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**Pairing standings **so far (if you vote for "anyone is fine" then everyone gets a vote, if you vote that you don't want someone, that'll be minus one for that person): 

Narcissa Black: 37

Bellatrix Black: 33 (same because all negatives cancelled out with positives)

Gabrielle Delacour (age modified): 26

Daphne Greengrass: 20

Hannah Abbot: 11

Susan Bones: 14

Luna Lovegood: 13

Cho Chang (can't believe I forgot her!): 0 (wow!)

* * *

**SPECIAL NEWS!**

It seems that recently there's been a rise in people who don't want Bellatrix in. Now, I really planned originally to include her, however, if there's a lot of you that don't want her, I'll give her up, sort to speak. So for this chapter only, I urge everyone to vote ONLY about the issue of Bellatrix. It's a yes or no vote. If it comes out to more than ten people not wanting her compared to those that do, she's out. One last time… VOTE ONLY ABOUT BELLATRIX… no other votes will be counted for this chapter. Oh, and I also apologize for forgetting to take off Padma Patil last time. She's off now!

That's all for now.

U-T signing off

BYE!


	8. Chaos Assimilation

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, bits of other shows and books are involved such as Matrix, Lord of The Rings, and Full Metal Alchemist (not enough to actually make it a crossover).

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter

Arthur's Note: I know… really late… can't talk… want to get chapter out… sorry… really busy… can't waste time on things like this… hopefully one more chapter before break ends (still have lots of homework to do)

* * *

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Eight:**

Chaos Assimilation

* * *

Light, that was all there was to see. It wasn't white, or any other colour that can be seen by the naked human eye. Perhaps it was a different wavelength, or at least that's what scientists would say. Perhaps it was some kind of mutation, as the more imaginative would say. Perhaps it was caused by mass pollution, as the environmentalists would say. But none of their opinions matter. None of them were here. None of them are here. And none of them will ever come here. This was a void universe, something that holds nothing special other than communication between dimensions and refuge for loners. 

It was here that Dumbledore stood, head high, addressing his superior before him. The Lich King; he wasn't what most people would have imagined him as, either an extremely old necromancer or giant skeleton. No, he looked about as average as the next human. Well, at least in a similar shape. This was his human form.

His skin was pure white and looked rather fragile, so much so that you would wonder if the slightest breeze would rip him apart. Actually, scratch that, his entire being was white. Hair, eyes, veins, etc., all of it was white. In fact, the only non-white on him was a marking in the middle of his forehead. That was red. It looked like a crescent moon rotated so that it looked like a "U" with a star in its caress and several triangles surrounding its curve making it look more like a sun.

His mark was matched equally of Dumbledore's forehead, or rather, his image, but in a pale blue colour. From their stance, it would seem that they treated each other as equals, but if anyone truly knew the aged headmaster, they would see that he was submissive, ready to fulfill what his superior had for him to do. "You have called? King Lich?" He asked, starting the conversation with his summoner.

"Indeed. The essence of chaos has talked to me, now is the time to break him." Lich replied, in an almost silent voice. Seeing the hesitation in Dumbledore's eyes, he gave him a small encouraging smile, understanding the trouble. "You are concerned for him yes? It is as if he was your family, which I suppose isn't that far from the truth." Dumbledore looked shocked for a moment, a truly memorable expression on his face, before replying. "Sire? What do you mean?"

Lich smiled a bit before shaking his head in the negative. "No, no, not like that. There is no relation between you and Harry Potter in physical blood. However, you are both… results… of chaos. You are the messenger, and he is the avatar, being prepared for his destiny and the chaotic energies that belong to him alone."

Dumbledore nodded a bit before opening his mouth. He was about to say something, but he paused in hesitation, not knowing how to voice his concern. "You are wondering why I can speak of affection without any spite or hate. I am correct yes?" Once again, Dumbledore nodded, not knowing what to say.

Lich gave off a small sigh before waving his and a mirror made of frost appeared. "It is true that I have hated affection before this. In fact, I hated all emotions other than fear and anger.

Mirror display: children cowering in a corner crying while a gruesome looking man looms over them, face red in unleashed fury

In fact, looking back, I think I might have loved those emotions. I still do, mind you, but now I see the truth. All thanks to chaos of course.

Mirror display: volcanic cavern where a giant stone door stands

Now, chaos is a part of you and I, even though it was in the world in all its aspects for so long.

Mirror display: Lich without head mark appearing at the door, touching it and seemingly being zapped with red lightning.

I was marked, and as my subordinates, so were all you Liches.

Mirror display: red lightning passing through thousands of liches, crumbling some of them

But this was wonderful. As now I see the truth. There is no good, like all subjects of the Burning Legion think of the Alliance, nor is there evil, like all members of the Alliance think of the Legion. There is only chaos and order. Whereas the inconsistency of order creates chaos, the consistency of chaos creates order. (A/N: if you're confused, don't worry, it will be explained a bit later when Harry hears this)

And at the heart of Chaos, are emotions. Emotions are neither weak nor strong, neither good nor bad, it IS chaos. Happiness can be derived from pain; sadness can be derived from pleasure. It is what separates us sentient beings from ruthless beasts. But, within these emotions, there is yet another core, which is the foundation of all emotion and all chaos. That, my friend, is love.

How I would have hated that word before, but now that I can see… it is true. Love of pain, of wealth, of people, of the concept of love itself. It creates confusion, fear, jealousy, happiness, sadness, etc. All of this… it is all love at work. We know this, as we are one with Chaos, one with its powers and wisdom.

Within a few centuries, it shall also be with Harry, and he shall then set out to find the power of Order. When Harry has the power of these two consistencies… our job will be done. It is then up to Chaos and Order to decide what happens. Whether their plan has worked or not, whether they have succeeded in spawning a child that is nothing and everything, whether they successfully brought their creation into being… that is only up to them."

Dumbledore stopped and thought to himself for a minute. He didn't know any of this before. That was for sure. In fact, all this probably happened before he was even born. He doesn't even know much about the origins of the Lich King nor his world, only the important details on influential leaders like Archimonde and Elune. It didn't matter at the moment. He had a job to do. This might very well be the end of Harry Potter, but he trusted the Lich, and he was going to do his task, feeling confident that this was also the plan of Chaos.

"Thank you for the information your majesty, now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to the subject of our conversations." He was about to leave, but Lich gave one last comment before Dumbledore disappeared. "Remember, you are to break him, not eliminate him."

* * *

The explosion rocked the entire train as a multitude of students rushed out of their compartments to see what was going on. There was a haze of smoke and no one could see anything at all. The students were afraid to use their wands, some for understandable reasons such as being afraid of Death Eaters, others for some rather… questionable… reasons like the underage magic ban. 

Even though this happened to the entire train, it affected Harry the most. He wasn't very stable emotionally, mentally, and physically to begin with. Now, his world just got more and more frenzied. There were flashes of red and blue light before the smoke cleared up as if by magic, which it probably was. However, in place of the smoke, there were now two aurors looking around before finally settling on Harry through recognizing his scar.

Harry tensed up as the two approached him, both being ready to mutter a spell on a split-second notice. These guys were the real deal, no third-class dropout. "Harry Potter." The taller of the two said after clearing his voice. There were some gasps as students realized the changes Harry had went through the course of one entire day. "You are under arrest for the murder of one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."

If there was one thing that could have toppled Harry emotionally, was the blame of another precious person's death upon his shoulders. "WHAT?" He shouted, choking a bit because his throat hurt from his recent battle. "We have three witnesses, Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, and Argus Filch who testifies that you are the one who have killed Headmaster Dumbledore. You were going to turn your wands on them too, but they escaped and came to the ministry. Now remain silent and come with us."

It was as if at that time Harry felt his body freezing, this was too much. He couldn't believe it. Not matter how much he tried, he couldn't do anything but feel a deep pain and dread coming from the pit of his stomach. "That's not all!" A voice shouted from somewhere amongst the crowd. 'No… no more… please…' Harry begged through his mind, did life hate him especially today?

Through the people, Dean Thomas and Ernie Macmillan appeared while also showing deep cuts and bruises. "He killed Corner and Finnigan!" Ernie yelled, before collapsing in a heap of hysteria. People gasped once more before turning their eyes on Harry again. 'No! It's not true! Please believe me! I didn't do this!' Harry thought, looking around and trying to see one friendly face. However, everyone that he could see was looking at him with hate in his or her eyes. Even Ron and Hermione, his closest friends, seemed unsure; knowing that there was a very possible chance this was a scheme of Voldemort. Tonks was nowhere to be found, and not for the first time in his life, Harry felt alone.

It was then that Harry felt something else. There was a presence in his mind. 'Sorry Harry, trust me on this. This will help develop your magical stamina.' It was Dumbledore's voice, and then he felt one of the sickest feelings he had ever felt. There were two rings of green light appearing around his wrists, sucking his magical energy like there was no tomorrow.

The aurors, thinking that Harry was trying a trick to escape, quickly shot him with multiple spells. As he fell onto the floor, more and more happened. Harry felt his scar burn with black magical energy coming from Voldemort. He felt Frostmourne in it dagger form feeding on his magical energy. Even snuffles seemed to be waking up and trying to "share" Harry's energy in trying to revive from his nap.

All this pain put Harry onto the floor gasping for breath. He looked around once more, and while most of the girls seemed more uncomfortable with what was going on, nobody offered to help him. That was when Harry lost it.

Warning: Intense Coarse Language, Read At Your Discretion Warning: I'm serious this is some wild swearing Warning: Last chance… 

**Warning: ok… here's swearing**

'WHY? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? CAN'T YOU TELL THAT I'M INNONCENT? WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING THIS TO ME? LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE YOU FUCKERS! LET'S SEE YOU TRY SOME OF THIS PAIN! NONE OF YOU WILL SURVIVE! YOU MOTHER FUCKING BITCHES!'

Surprisingly, Harry managed to stay silent while these thoughts raged in his head. But his anger was so intense that he felt like he might die soon. 'Curse you Voldemort, for all your shit that you've given me. Curse you Ron, you jealous bastard. Curse you Hermione, you graceless betraying slut. Curse you Dumbledore, you fucking old coot.' This went on. It would have been funny… but the situation was anything but funny.

In this rage, when all these foreign magics assaulted him, Harry felt something liberated inside of him. It was dark. He knew that much. It was darker than Voldemort, he was sure it was darker Mal' Ganis too. But what really scared him was that he was familiar with this essence. It was his own self. It was with him when Cedric died. It was with him when Mr. Weasley was attacked. And it ruled over him subconsciously when Sirius died. This was part of him. Before he could do anything other than acknowledging this, he felt it move, merging with him mind, becoming one with him.

The feeling of yet another presence affecting his own was too much. Harry lifted up his head and everyone who could see his eyes gasped. His left one had turned into a shining red counterpart of his original piercing green eye while his right one looked entirely black with white lines over it looking like a cracked mirror.

Harry let the familiar presence completely merge with himself as his thoughts began to change. 'I see.' He thought, looking at the ground once again in a weird broken type of vision. 'You're all trying to break me.' The once depressing thought now brought bitter humour to him. 'You think that by your puny magic you can subdue me. Because I do not follow your rules, because I had the guts to do what's needed, because I survived Voldemort, because I'm the fucking boy who fucking lived. Well then… let's see you try to take me down without a fight!'

With that thought, Harry stood up amidst shocked gasps and looks. "You want to take me down?" He asked in a broken whisper to the aurors, who had fear on their faces due to Harry breaking their entire multitude of restraining curses. "I refuse…" He spoke softly. "I refuse…" He said again, louder. "I REFUSE YOUR INJUSTICE!" He screamed as a magical backlash caused a huge gust of wind blowing everyone against the walls and floor.

Harry concentrated and found himself in a black space with one small glowing seed in the middle. The seed was sprouting a little, but had various binds on it, as if choking it to death. Harry became enraged once more at this and set to work. 'All of your morbid black magic…' he turned to a black chain binding the seed. 'You are mine!' He thought with a crazed determination as the black chain melted into the seed, absorbed while one black lotus (A/N disclaimer: don't own magic cards either) flowered, as if in a sped up national geographic show.

The same happened to all the other binds, the green light of Dumbledore, the pink of the omnisence, the blue of Frostmourne, the yellow of the aurors, and a multitude of other colours and origins began to meld with his seed, which he knew was his magical core. Soon, within 15 minutes, what used to be a seed was now a magical and sacred tree grove, full of various colours and powers. There was a giant clearing amongst the foliage, but it didn't matter. Within this limited amount of time, his magic more than replenished itself and tripled in size. This was getting good.

Harry concentrated again and returned to the real world, taking his consciousness away from his magical core. That's when he felt it. The magic was too much. He had the will to bring forth this magic, but now he was too tired to control it. He could feel it burning his body, his flesh tearing off, and his skin being torn. It was too painful. He wanted to shout, but he couldn't. This was bad.

He knew he had to get rid of this power through some magical act, but he couldn't decide. His magical backlash is still going strong and pushing everyone against the walls, even the aurors were knocked unconscious. "POTTER!" A voice screamed. Harry turned to see Moody fighting the wind and going towards him. The students who were still conscious breathed a sigh of relief as they thought Mad-Eye could save them, but none of them expected what happened next.

Harry's right eye gave an unnatural glow before his left suddenly shut like an awkward wink. His right then turned into a black eye with a red iris and white pupil. Harry seized Moody by the neck as smoked issued from their contact, apparently burning Moody's flesh. Harry's now black eye shot a blackish beam into Moody's magic eye before forcefully pulling it out of him. Then, Moody's eye was consumed by Harry's, creating one more backlash.

Dropping his victim to the floor, Harry closed both his eyes, trying to register what he just did. It was all so confusing right now; he didn't know what was going on. Everything was just so… chaotic. There was only one thing that he thought could save him now. He needed to get away from here… fast. So with one explosion of multiple colours, Harry Potter left the world, hopefully to be seen in the near future.

* * *

End Chapter Eight 

A/N: Not the best chapter, have to go do work now. Happy holidays. Sorry, for delay… but it's really busy for me. Still have to do lots of homework. T.T Can't do anything about pairing votes or review responses. Really sorry… I have to go now. Hopefully I'll get another chapter out this holiday. I'm really sorry.

U-T signing off

BYE!


	9. Me, My Magic, and I

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, a bit of other shows and books are involved such as Magic the Gathering, and Naruto (not enough to actually make it a crossover) is used.

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter

Arthur's Note: Sorry everyone. Don't think you guys want excuses, so let's start the chapter and talk afterwards.

* * *

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Nine:**

Me, My Magic, And I

* * *

Harry awoke to purple fields and yellow skies. There was nothing that really distinguished anything, no clouds, trees, nada. He started to wonder about that, forgetting everything momentarily and leaving his mind in a blissfully unaware state, before he received what had to be the mother of all migraines. Within all of the pain, Harry remembered what happened, his sudden betrayal, pain, and burst of emotions. Everything was as clear as Dudley's new high-definition television from last summer. 

'Damn, how did all that happen?' He thought to himself, he didn't remember why everything happened the way it did, especially his thoughts about his friends. He wasn't really mad at them, was he? Before he could confuse himself into another headache, he heard a familiar voice. "You are awake," it said, softly and with a hollow ring to it like a ghost.

Of course, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lives, isn't scared of a mere ghost when he had faced so much worse, but there was something in that voice. What was it? It was his own voice. Harry turned around to look for the speaker, finding nothing, not that he expected to. After all, it was kind of like protocol for all things weird, appear when nobody expects you, and disappear when you can be useful or someone's looking for you.

Harry let out a soft sigh before putting a resigned look on his face. "What is it this time? Am I being summoned by a demon? Or maybe it's the spirit of Christmas past!" Harry said, tired of all the "weird" things happening to him. "I do not like that attitude of yours." The voice replied, before Harry felt a presence right in front of his face. The speaker wasn't really anything he expected; it was, for a lack of a better word, an egg of blue light. It was about the size of his head, which made him feel a bit awkward, as it was like talking to a floating head. There was a bit of a blue mist surrounding it, giving it the look of a powerful aura, but Harry wasn't intimidated by the power, for some reason.

"Who or what are you?" Harry asked, thinking that his life was going to get even stranger. "Well, I am blue." The little oval replied, triggering a moment of silence. "Naw… really?" Harry asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Your attitude never ceases to astound me." Blue replied, in a similar drawl to the one Harry had used.

Harry gave a soft sigh before deciding that enough was enough. "Just tell me what you want so I can go." This caused another lapse of silence between the two with Harry staring at the figure while Blue appeared to be staring at Harry too, even if it had no visible eyes. "This is going to take a while to explain, as I am here to explain to you the basic theory of magic."

More silence. Harry didn't understand why there were these silences any more, was he supposed to say something profound at this moment? "Go on," Harry prompted, wondering what he was getting into. Blue shifted a bit, before seemingly cleared its throat before beginning.

"Right now, we are in your magiscape. That is, the plane of existence where you can see and feel your magic within your body. This plane exists parallel to the dreamscape, soulscape and the mindscape, making the Tetrity of Self. The soulscape is only accessible through the worst of what most wizards call "Dark Magic" while the dreamscape can only be visited naturally at random times, though it (the dreamscape) can be controlled through rituals.

The mindscape is accessible and controllable to all who practice what you call Occlumency and Legilmency, once more amplified through rituals and artifacts. Lastly, the magiscape, that we are in now, is not something that most people can manipulate. There are not even any rituals to control this plane or the soulscape, as the magical and spiritual energies are too dangerous to trifle with external energies.

However, as part of an old wizarding family's Blood Earned True Advancement (Beta), some wizards can surpass these boundaries. The Potter line has been gifted with, amongst other things part of their Beta, the Basic Sight, which allows them to see magic in its most basic forms. Thus explains how you can see me. Are there any questions so far?"

Harry took a while to commit everything to memory, before asking a question. "Doesn't everyone see magic? Everyone knows what the disarming spell looks like, as well as others, what's so different about this Basic Sight?" Blue paused a bit, again, before answering. "Those are the physical visual colours of the spells, not their… true forms if you will. All magic is categorized into different colours, which is what I will explain next. Unless, do you have any more questions?" At the shake of Harry's head in the negative, Blue continued.

"The five colours exist in a cycle, starting with Red and going clockwise, we have Red, Green, White, Blue (that's me), and Black. They represent almost everything, from emotions to types of magic to elements. For example they elementally represent Fire and Lightning, Earth and Plant Life, Light and Humanity, Water and Air, and Darkness and Metal. In terms of types of spell casters, they represent Sorcerers, Druids, Clerics, Illusionists, and Necromancers. They represent in many more ways, but I doubt you need more examples.

All magic is divided more or less into these colours, including spells, rituals, and magical creatures. However, they all have a relationship with the other colours. The ones adjacent to a colour, is their ally, which those that fact them are opponents. For example, I am Blue, and as such I work better with White and Black, but not Green or Red. This does not mean I cannot be used with Red or Green, but rather a spell from the combination will be harder to cast or control or cause some other problem.

There is also a who-beats-who relationship, as each colour looses to one of its opponents while wins against the other. That is, if the amount and intent in the magics are equal. Blue beats Red, Red beats White, White beats Black, Black beats Green, and Green beats Blue. That is the truth, and I admit it, though other colours are not as honest in how they view their weaknesses. Mind you, there are exceptions, but this is the general rule, called the Pential Cycle. Of course, these are just the basic colours."

Harry held up his hand up to try and remember everything. After a few minutes he took a deep breath and asked the one question that bothered him the most. "What does this have to do with me? What does this have to do with any wizard?" Harry expected a pause, but thankfully there was none as Blue started to talk again.

"When casting a spell, wizards and other spell casters channel their raw magic from their magiscape, or their "Magical Cores" as some call them, to manipulate them into spell, whether by will alone or through a focus. Between the final resulting spell and raw magic, there is a secondary stage for magic, in the form that is called Mana.

This Mana exists in the colours that I have just told you about and is converted by the spell caster. Some magical beings have/develop Mana cores along with their raw Magical Cores. The advantage here is that it is far more efficient to channel Mana for spells rather than raw magic. In terms of amount, converted Mana is ten times more effective than raw magic. However, some spells require specifically raw magic, so it's not wise to depend entirely on Mana.

That being said, all humans with born magical ability are born with an affinity for a specific colour of Mana. This means they can cast and control spells of that particular colour easier than others. They may also be able to develop a Mana core of their colour. These Mana cores in turn create avatars, like myself, to look over the development of the cores as well as other related tasks. However, unlike most of the other avatars, I can speak to you and you can see me, due to your Potter Beta.

Now, some are born with two affinities, which result in one of two scenarios. One is that the two colours can work together nicely, like Black and Red, in which there is no problem, and only more benefits for that person. However, if the colours are contradicting, like Blue and Green, then there is a problem. There is a lot of magical tension, in this case, and while this is great for casting offensive spells and spells that specifically target that colour combinations, all other spells are weakened. The only way to fix this, is a Forced-Affinity ritual is needed. Basically, since any two opposing colours have one colour that works with both of them, such as White for the opposing Blue and Green, the ritual forcibly gives a person an affinity for that middle colour, to stabilize a person's magical abilities.

There is a negative backlash to this, as the spell caster will then be more than just dismal at the remaining two coloured spell types. However, even having one affinity is rare, and thus this is not a major issue. Now, as you may have figured, I would not be telling you this without reason. I am here to inform you of your affinities, and other parts of your magical core."

That was the response Harry received for his rather simple question, but he still paid attention to everything being said, as he believed this would be important. "Affinities? So I have you and…?" Harry trailed off, waiting for Blue to speak. But before Blue could answer, he felt overcome with anger before it dissipated just as quickly. "Me." He heard a different, almost passionate voice say. It still sounded like his own though, as a flash of Red showed Harry his answer. In front of him, right beside Blue, was an identical Red entity.

There appeared to be an awkward pause before Blue spoke again. "Ugh, yes. Your other natural affinity is... Red," he said with what seemed like disgust in his voice. Harry felt another flash of anger before Red retorted with a "What's that supposed to mean!" However, it seemed as if Blue was no longer paying attention to what he said before.

"I thought you were looking after the other two?" Blue asked, changing the direction of the conversation. "I brought them here with me," Red replied. It was then that Harry noticed two smaller orbs of light revolving around Red, both the size of his fist, much smaller than Blue and Red. They were Green and White. "Hold on!" Harry exclaimed as the white light floated away from Red and towards Blue. "I though you said there could only be affinity for three colours at the most for one person?"

Blue seemed to cough before replying. "Um… yes, but those that have double affinities pass those on to their offspring with a 90 chance of success. Your mother had affinities with Blue and White while your father had Green and Red. With their coupling… it is no wonder what happened to you." Harry blinked a bit at his answer before coming to another thought that bothered him. "So I'm not able to cast Black spells? I mean, considering everything you've told me about affinities…" he drifted off, wondering what Blue, or even Red, was going to say.

Once again, silence, Harry wondered if all magic was so… dull. It was then that he felt it. It was a pain, it was a hate, it was an emotion that he had only read about in description. There was a sudden burst from his scar before his eyes adjusted to the new sight before him. It appeared to be a mannequin made from some solid black material, with his figure almost exactly. "I guess this is the time for my entrance," it said with a soft hiss. Harry noticed that Red and Blue seemed to grow a bit while White and Green seemed to be whimpering.

"Black," Harry said through ground teeth. "I suppose you are a gift from Voldemort." There was a great silence that followed, before Blue talked once more. "Ah… yes… Black… was from a… special circumstance. Now I have one more lesson for Harry before he has to leave. It appears the headmaster is trying to wake him up." The other colours faded away leaving Blue and Harry alone.

"Harry, the reason I called you here was because I was finally able to. When you absorbed all of those spells, the converted magic gained awakened White and Green, while strengthening Red and myself to level 2, and Black to level 3. The levels, as you see, were indicated through our forms. Now, quickly, for you must awake soon."

Soon Harry's vision shifted to that of yellow space with a giant purple orb in front of him.

"Think of this as a planet Harry. The purple represents your natural magical potential; this is 20 times larger than the normal amount. The yellow is your full potential, with the use of rituals and amplifiers and such. However, everyone's full potential is near infinity, so there is not use comparing to a standard there."

The purple orb rotated a bit to show patches of Black, Blue, and Red. Together, they were about the size of Eastern Europe, with half of it being black, and the other being two equal quarters of blue and red. There were small specks of white, green, and gold. All of the colours seemed to be situated on a sea of gray the size of Russia.

"These are your developing Mana cores, which refill and develop faster than your magical core, represented in gray. This of course holds your raw magic. Lastly, Gold spells, creatures, and rituals contain parts of each of the five basic ones. Silver represents magic that is a combination of colours with a minimum of 2 colours and a maximum of four. Since the different combinations do different things, there is no general pattern for these colours in terms of behaviour or otherwise. Each Silver and Gold spell is different.

You cannot have Gold or Silver Mana cores. What you see below you is a part of your bonding with a magical creature. We don't have time for you to go look closer now, but it appears like a giant shrine/temple and the area around it grows as you become close and experience more with the creature that you are bonded to. I believe this is a bond to the Omnisence, which contains all colours, and is thus Gold."

Just as Blue finished talking, there was flash as everything started to dim in his vision. "I'm sorry but our time is up, we will talk the next time we are able to!" Blue all but screamed as Harry began to feel a dragging motion upon his mind.

Harry opened his eyes once more that day, though this time it was in the actual physical world. At least, he tried to but he couldn't open his right eye for some reason. Fear struck him as he glanced around, only to see the headmaster looking down at him. Harry quickly stood up and noticed that he was still pretty much wearing what he was before the big explosion, if only a bit more ruffled.

* * *

"Professor! You won't believe –" he started before Dumbledore cut him off quickly. "Not now Harry. I must apologize but I already know what you have just learned. At the moment, you must learn one thing before I need you to fulfill a mission for me." 

"Mission, sir?" Harry asked, a bit annoyed that he was interrupted. "I'm sorry Harry, but no time to explain at the moment. I believe you've learned about Betas, yes?" Dumbledore asked, but continued before Harry could reply. "Of course you have. Now, I'm going to leave you with a problem that you cannot solve. Afterwards, I'm going to give you some hints on what the answer is, before showing you to a harder version of the problem to truly test if you have learned what I want you to learn. Do you understand? Good."

With that, the professor disappeared leaving Harry to look at his surroundings. It looked like there were one some kind of giant flying island over one ocean or another. The area he was in was a little clearing in a small forest on a small mountain. There appeared to be giant stone tablets arranged circularly to look like the Roman Coliseum. They were held up be magic and rotating this way and that along with some shifting here and there. In the middle was one giant fountain that seemed to radiate a peaceful life with two smaller silvery fountains around it. There was a final giant stone tablet behind the biggest fountain that seemed to reflect light like a mirror.

Before Harry could look even further at his surroundings, the ground of the island began to shake. Before Harry knew it, there were new holes in the grass with skeletal claw-like hands working their way out of it. Taking a look around, Harry noticed that there were hundreds if not thousands of these little hands around him coming from the ground. Pretty soon, the one closest to Harry made the hole big enough for a skeletal and deformed head to pop out of the ground with beady red eyes. The other burrows around him follow through as Harry backed towards the fountains reaching for something to help him fight. He then realized that he was left with only the abilities of his two arms, as his acquired wands and Frostmourne were gone. Before Harry knew what happened next, he only had one thought to the ancient headmaster. "You know what Dumbledore? You're. Not. Funny!"

* * *

A/N: Not my best chapter, but I wanted it out as soon as possible. The ending's a little rushed, but it's on purpose, not just because I wanted to post it as soon as I can. Sorry for no action yet, but I wanted that Mana system to be explained since it's probably going to be one of the main ways that Harry's going to be fighting. Any ways, I wanted to let you guys know I didn't forget this story, as well as I have basically decided on the relationships. However, I want everyone to tell me how many should be with Harry because I've read some pretty good stories with more than dozens of lovers, and I think it might be able to be done. I'm considering this for a few reasons that might give a bit away of the future occurrences, but I'm still not too sure for now. Also, I've basically forgotten if I'm supposed to say or reply or do something that I was supposed. Please inform me if I have forgot something. 

Anyways, U-T signing off, sorry for the long wait, the next should be on by Thursday.


	10. No Fear, No Pain, No Gain

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, a bit of other shows and books are involved such as Magic the Gathering, and Naruto (not enough to actually make it a crossover) is used.

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter

Arthur's Note: It appears that I have some very disturbing problems with punctuality, but I'll say all of my pitiful excuses after this chapter. Also, there's some important things that I want to address at the end, so please read the note there, unless you're not reading this either… Oh well, the next chapter is more important at the moment.

Added Note: I tried to get this up all day yesterday since the afternoon! Sorry everyone, it seems that there were some problems online too.

* * *

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Ten:**

No Fear No Pain No Gain

* * *

Harry looked around, starting to panic. This really wasn't good. Not only was he stuck in a place with hundreds of little skeleton-like beings that were probably going to kill him as soon as they get the chance, he was stuck without any real weapon to defend himself and he didn't know where he was. He calmed himself before he did anything that he might really regret later. If there was anything his last battle with the deatheaters had taught him, it was that while skill and power won duels, intelligence dominated massive battles. It was a shame that snuffles wasn't here to help him, as a map as well as information on the current scenario with regards to his creepy little enemies.

He quickly thought about what was available to him. He tried to use his two arms for any sign of special skills available to him. To his dismay, he couldn't feel any of the usual powers from them, as they only appeared to have the functions of normal arms, despite (he had lifted up his sleeves) their visual difference to normal arms. His Eye of Erised was still unable to be opened, which left him with whatever meager amounts of hand-to-hand combat skills he had along with his normal eye.

He guessed that if he tried hard enough, he could probably see the Mana around him as well as the source the skeletons. However, he might also cause an accident and lose his only available eye at the moment, and thus loose all sight. That wasn't a good idea. The fountains around him emanated traces of magical power that he could feel, but knowing his luck, the liquid in the fountains would do him more harm than good. He was snapped out of his thoughts from a jerking pain from his head.

It appeared that Harry had forgotten something. His hair. He could finally understand why most pureblood wizards didn't fight physically as much as magically when he saw that one of the skeletal creatures near him had grabbed his hair by the small spearheaded tip and was trying to drag itself out with it. Harry clenched his teeth and swooped down quickly before landing a punch to its head with his Un-Arm.

Surprisingly, the creature showed no signs of being damaged or in pain, though it did let go of Harry's hair. The other surprise from what just happened was that Harry felt a shattering pain where his chest was attached to his metallic (it had reverted from its stone form) arm. Harry quickly took his braided hair in his other hand, holding the spear tip like a dagger, before he got up and began to run towards the surrounding forest.

That was his only choice at the moment. There wasn't anything that he could do right now since if even his punches with his Un-Arm were ineffective, there was no chance that he could do anything else to effectively hurt the skeletons. Before long, Harry was deep into the forest, and he could hear that he was being followed through the rustling behind him.

From the sounds of it, those critters were pretty fast. In fact, they were faster than him. Applying logic, this meant they were catching up. Pumping all the energy he could into his legs, he ran faster and faster, before he came to what he thought was a cliff of some sort. It was too late to stop, as by that time he could side glance some of the skeletal creatures that were now flanking him. The moment he saw them, he wished he hadn't, as he saw strips of decomposed flesh as well as organs in their white shell-like bodies.

When he noticed the edge, and tried to stop, his enemies behind him didn't and resulted in pushing him along with a few of them into the giant-sized fissure. Before he knew it, he was falling faster than any broom or dragon into what he thought would be his end. It was then that he felt the most fear that he had ever experienced in his life. It was worse than Dudley and his bullies, worse than dementors, and even worse than Voldemort.

He mind briefly thought about the prophecy protecting him, but somehow it brought him more fear. Something wasn't right. It was almost like the crevice itself was telling Harry that he was going to dies, as it that was the entire purpose of everything so far in his short-lived life. His eye widened, and he almost felt the magic pulsing out of him in his fear, as if responding to the situation and trying to get out of his body to escape the inevitable result of this scenario.

Harry felt the fear overcoming him, as if begging him to yell, cry, or anything to show his desperation to live. It was as if there was something to be proved by giving in, giving in to how much he feared death, giving in to all that he doubted or worried over. There seemed to be no hope, nothing. And then, it happened. He felt his magic pulse once more, this time more like reacting to some kind of stimulant in a chemical process. There were voices in his head, muttering incoherent nothings into his ears. Then time seemed to slow down as Harry kept staring at the bottom of the crevice, covered in darkness so as to taunt him as to what he would find there.

As time finally seemed to come to a halt, Harry felt a force fighting his fear. It was himself, he knew. It was some small part of him that had been dormant all these years. While everything right now was trying to get Harry to admit how much he feared death, this inner version of himself fought passionately and proclaimed how much he valued life. It was then that Harry seemed to understand his greatest fear. It wasn't death it self as much as the fact that Harry couldn't fulfill his goals for living.

What his goals were and what they meant were lost to Harry at the moment, but he understood one thing about himself more now than ever before. Death can come, and death can torment him, but it will not beat him while he had a reason (which he doesn't know, but that was trivial) to live. He though of all of his friends, and those dear to him who had died so he didn't have to. This caused a sudden thump in his heart as he felt the newly awakened part of him merge with him completely.

Along with this feeling, time seemed to resume, and he was falling once more. However, this time, instead of dread, hopelessness, and fear, Harry felt calm, whole, and an overwhelming desire for power to prove that he deserved to live. Then he felt the new changes to his body. It, unlike in Dumbledore's office, was an internal change. He could feel what seemed like a second heart next to his, and he became almost painfully aware of pathways similar to his blood veins and arteries that circulated throughout his body.

He understood. He didn't know how, but he did. These were pathways for his magic and Mana. It was probably how some people did wandless magic, or did any magic for that matter, by channeling their magic through these pathways. He thought that most people probably didn't feel them like he did, but it didn't matter. This was helpful to him. This helped him control and channel his magic, and he would not waste such a gift.

Turning around in the air so that he was facing the rocky wall of the cliff he fell from, he took a deep breath and concentrated within his "second heart", his magical core. He felt around for the magic, hoping to find something that felt would save him right now. He felt the blue controlled Mana coming to his command, but it didn't feel like what he needed. He felt the almost venomous black Mana trying to dominate him and be released, but he didn't feel they would help either. Then he felt the red Mana. It went perfectly with how he felt at the moment, how he wanted to prove himself - his endless desire and passion.

Channeling the red Mana into his Un-Arm, he smashed his fist into the wall as he kept falling down. There was a great red explosion and Harry was dragged downwards as his gathered momentum kept on forcing him to fall. This resulted in his Un-Arm cleaving a gigantic gash on the rocky surface, with debris falling all around him. This kept on for a while, with Harry keeping up with channeling red Mana and the occasional dose of raw magic if there wasn't enough Mana into his arm. Unlike when he had punched the skeleton before, he didn't feel any pain from the Un-Arm.

When Harry finally stopped falling and was just hanging with his arm stuck in the rock, he took a minute to gather his bearings. Panting, Harry felt the earlier adrenalin had faded, and he was calmer now. Harry saw a small nearby ledge, just big enough for him to lie down on. It was luckily under him, a bit to the left. Harry worked his arm out a bit, and then with precision he didn't know he had, he swung himself onto the ledge, panting. Harry realised that it was foolish for him to jump, as the ledge could have given away and break off, but it thankfully didn't.

Finally feeling all of the earlier adrenalin disappear into nothing, Harry soon found himself drowsy with an incredible urge to close his eyes. He was just about to nod off into sleep when a strong cold gust of wind come from above and effectively ended any sleepiness in his system. The wind also brought something else though. That is, Harry caught the sound of harsh scraping sounds from above him.

Squinting with his only available eye, Harry nearly swore at what he was. The army of skeleton creature was crawling down the sides of the crevice that he was in and approaching him. It was like they were casually walking vertically. Not understanding what was going on, and knowing that this had at least something to do with magic, Harry willed himself to see the Mana that these creatures used. After all, they definitely weren't natural creatures, so they had to use magic… right?

To Harry's relief, he was indeed right, as his vision changed such that instead of being white, the skeletons' bodies appeared black with small wisps of blue and red hovering about them. What really caught Harry's attention, however, were the concentrations of blue around the claws and feet of the critters. It appeared that they were using blue Mana to hang on to the rocky surface. He was about to study them some more, when he realized that they were nearing him at a very fast pace.

Knowing he had to do something, and to be honest he was curious about walking on the walls, he carefully placed his feet onto the wall (he was still lying down on the ledge) and reached within his blue Mana core to start channeling it to his feet. Walking upwards a few paces, but being careful not to get too close to the advancing army, Harry was happily surprised to find that he was walking up the wall. He was so happy, in fact, that he forgot what he was doing for a brief second and had a quick and brief fall back on the ledge.

'Guess I really should concentrate huh?' Harry thought to himself as he once more applied the Mana to his feet. This time, carefully going around the ledge until he was only holding it and was facing downwards towards the dark bottom of this giant hole, he took a quick look behind him at his approaching enemies before he let go and began to run down, away from the following army.

It was a few minutes after he started to run that he realized that he wasn't really in control of himself anymore. He was running faster and faster, so much that he wasn't sure if he could stop. He hoped putting a bit more Mana might slow him down, but when he did that his right foot (the one he tried this on) seemed to burst away from the wall and instead of sticking towards to wall seemed to repel it.

Readjusting his footing quickly, Harry began to run again and just go with the flow as he tried to figure out how to stop when he came to the bottom other than just crashing into the ground. The time passed quickly and before Harry knew what was happening, he found himself staring at the bottom of his descent. Knowing that he couldn't try to stop like he did last time, he tried what he knew worked.

Focusing on his red Mana core once more, Harry relived the adrenalin rush that had accompanied the Mana the first time and repeated his earlier action – he slammed his Mana enforced Un-Arm into the wall and forcefully stopped his fall just a feet or so away from the ground. Releasing his hold once more, Harry dropped ungracefully to the ground and promptly fell on his back to catch his breath.

Looking up, he was glad to not see any of the skeletons, but he knew that they were still coming for him. He surveyed his surroundings for anything that could help him but only found dry land and a few rocks around. There were also bones and the occasional skull (probably from the first skeletons that fell with him), but that wasn't really helping much. Taking a deep breath, he relived Dumbledore's instructions. He was supposed to fail whatever this was in order to teach himself something. He wasn't even sure what counts as fail and what counts as passing.

Seeing that he had no choice but to fight now, as there wasn't any place left for him to run to, he pondered about how to fight. The only thing different between now and when he first started was a bit more information, and the awakened ability to cast some form of wandless magic (that was what he thought he had been doing) through his body. Knowing that his only option was to fight with his Mana, Harry tried channeling different combinations and amount to see what would happen as well as increasing the amount of Mana he could channel. He was going to give it his best, and he'll be ready for whatever the old goat sends him.

* * *

Dumbledore reappeared where he left Harry a while before, and promptly cast a spell to see what happened before and what was happening now. After about two hour's worth of action compacted into 5 minutes entered his mind, Dumbledore vanished and reappeared behind a rock near where Harry was at the moment. The boy had been experimenting and was now in a self-taught meditative stance seeming to practice channeling Mana throughout his entire body without wasting a single bit by not expelling any. He had to admit, the amount of control Harry was displaying was most impressive, but the moment of truth had come as noises from above caught his attention, though apparently not Harry's. He waited to see what was going to happen.

* * *

Harry felt the calm in his body even when he heard the approaching enemy. He had spent the last hour and a half experimenting, training, and finally calming and focusing his mind to prepare himself for the battle that was to come. He knew he was going to be surrounded from all sides since that was the way the enemy was advancing. His best chance was to cleave a path through them and place himself so that he would be facing all of his opponents. With that said, he allowed himself to add more raw magic into his Mana core as well as add more Mana to what he was already channeling around his body, giving him a small golden aura as all five Mana were mixed.

He was ready, and those little bastards were going to pay. As soon as the skeletons came within a two-feet radius of him, he released all of the Mana he had been circulating around his body. The results were immediate, as several dozen seemed to completely dissolve into nothing.

Harry smirked a bit as he got into what he thought was a fighting stance and charged both his arms with red Mana and a touch of white. After all, Blue did tell him that white beat black Mana any day. Another happy note was that when he had experimented with the two colours before, he learned that a LOT of red plus just the right amount of white caused rather… explosive results.

With those thoughts in mind, Harry rushed towards one side before the skeletons could gather their bearings for another attack. With his Un-Arm, he bashed, smashed, and destroyed all that were in his way. He was glad that it was working so well. Knowing that his Un-Arm could take more damage and handle more force, Harry had channeled just enough red and white Mana into it to cut through the enemy like a hot knife through butter.

However, what pleasantly surprised Harry were his more human arm's results. Knowing that it couldn't take as much impact as his Un-Arm, Harry used the explosive red-white (he refused to call it pink) combination with that hand, wanting to cause damage more with Mana than with force. Harry had slipped his control a bit as he wasn't just like practicing before but was now in an actual combat situation. He had added a bit black into the mix by accident and the result… BAM!

A giant explosion followed by the sudden appearance of a giant white fireball was Harry's gift for his efforts. That explosion had to have taken at least a good hundred of the skeletons. Seeing an opening, Harry rushed past the skeletons around him and turned around to face all of the remaining opponents. He was satisfied with the destruction that he saw, as flesh and bone were everywhere along with wisps of his Sacred-Fire (what he had named the white flames he produced) burning merrily here and there.

He almost laughed when he saw what was happening to the survivors of his "Sacred-Fire" blast. It appeared that while physically strong and capable, the creatures didn't have much of a brain. The surviving ones had the white flames burning right on them and they were running around screeching in agony. This meant that the survivors bumped into other skeletons, and those skeletons caught fire, and so forth.

Harry almost thought that the fire would be enough to wipe out all of his enemies when he saw a second fire-less wave of skeletons approach him. Harry smiled a bit. His red and white (he never did have a lot of white to work with in the beginning so even a little bit like he had used was a bit straining) Mana reserves were slowly refilling, which meant that he couldn't pull off what he just did a while ago. However, that didn't mean he didn't experiment with his other colours of Mana.

Focusing black and green Mana into his lungs, he brought his hands around his mouth to direct the path of his next newly invented technique. Gathering the biggest breath of air, so much that his cheeks seemed like those of a frog's, Harry let out the breath, but instead of air, it was a dark green and purple cloud of gas that was directed to the approaching undead. Upon contact, the skeletons started to shriek even louder than those that were burned with the Sacred-Fire.

'Mix the right amount of black and green Mana, and through a fluid medium, and wham! You have instant acid. I learned that the hard way.' Harry thought with a smirk as he looked at a slight burn on his Un-Arm where he accidentally turned sweat into acid and burned himself.

Looking around, feeling magically exhausted but physically fine, Harry reassessed his situation. Things were looking good, there was probably only about half of the enemy left and they were busy running from the fire-infected undead as well as the remnants of his acid gas cloud. He was out of green and white Mana, probably only enough to a minor physical wound (something else he had discovered). He had around half of his red and black Mana, and a full reserve of blue. Victory was looking really good right about now.

That was until something caught his attention. On the other side of the battlegrounds, was a skeletal figure much unlike the rest. It was wearing a black mask, red robe, and holding a staff with a ram's skull at the top of it. With a swish of its staff, and a burst of black Mana (Harry could see), it extinguished his Sacred Fire and Acid Cloud before gathering all the remaining skeletons.

The figure said something in a rough language before a sudden white and black rune circle appeared beneath him and his army. After all, it was only logical to assume that this guy was the head. In a flash of dark silver light, instead of an army of skeletons, there was a giant skeletal creature armored with bones and armed with two giant white spears. The figure in red robes stood atop its creation before seemingly to melt into it as a red diamond shape appeared on the giant's forehead.

Moving surprisingly fast, the giant soon had Harry in its grasp and was soon choking him. At the same time, it brought one of the spears from its back to the front and held the spearhead towards a now suffocating Harry.

Knowing that he had to act fast, Harry forced all the red, white, and a bit of black Mana he had through his entire body. Making him effectively appear like a light bulb to the giant. As soon as he had gathered enough, he released it all in an explosion of Sacred Fire. The gigantic skeleton gave a bellowing roar as its entire left arm was decimated. Harry knew that he couldn't stay on the ground and had to quickly come up with a plan to deal with what he hoped was his final opponent in this little skirmish.

Directing the calm blue Mana that he seemed to have a lot left of, Harry quickly dashed up the walls channeling what he could of red and green Mana once in a while to empower his legs. Soon, he was running up the wall almost as fast as he was running down it not too long ago. As Harry expected, the giant applied its own Mana to its remaining three limbs and gave chase.

After about fifteen minutes, though it seemed like hours to Harry, he quickly turned around to face his approaching opponent. 'It's true that I can't beat you with what I have left,' Harry thought grimly before a small smile graced his lips, 'but that doesn't mean I can't use other forces to fight you!' By the time he had finished his thoughts he had gathered enough black Mana to make his left palm seem permanently black.

As the giant skeleton was reaching too close to him for comfort, Harry gave one quick and hard push with Mana-enhanced legs backwards (upwards) and brought his left palm down, releasing a calm wave of black death-like Mana towards his enemy. The giant opened its mouth and seemed to laugh before surprising Harry by actually speaking. "Foolish little boy, how can death harm the dead!"

Harry smirked at that; he wasn't planning on using a black Mana wave to hurt a black-Mana based creature. While each Mana is destructive in its own right, especially black and red, ha had guessed (and correctly at that) that they were almost useless against creatures of the same Mana colour. However, Harry was aiming for something else. "Sorry, I guess I forgot something." Harry said innocently as he then held up his right palm. 'Now, to make things go off with a bang!' He thought as he shot a small spark of white and red Mana towards the black wave. Harry had on purpose made the new colours travel much faster.

Upon contact with the black Mana, the wave began to pulsate violently as it continued to heard towards its target though with much more malicious intent than before. The giant seemed confident that it wouldn't hurt him. Thus, it didn't move as the wave struck not it, but the wall on which it had attached its limbs. Eye sockets apparently widening, the giant realized what was going on too lat as it was soon falling towards its doom. It didn't help when giant pieces of debris caused by the explosion fell surprisingly faster than the giant itself as they smashed into the undead being.

To make sure that the giant was really down for good, Harry gathered all the remaining Mana he had left and expelled a golden beam towards his enemy. Upon contact, there was another explosion, this time on the giant itself. Harry landed prematurely on one of the still falling rocks, hoping to use it as some kind of cushioning for his own fall. He didn't have enough Mana of any kind left to stop his fall like before.

Harry contented himself with a triumphant smile as he watched the giant fall in pieces below him before he saw another rock falling besides him. His eyes widened at the implication and he turned his head quickly to above and saw more debris towering over him. It appeared that the explosions were so great that the rock above Harry had dislodged from the walls as well. 'You have to be shitting me!' He cursed in his mind as his world was engulfed in pain as his body was literally squashed between a rock and a hard place (though both were technically rocks). Then all he could see was black as he fainted from the overexertion and pain.

* * *

A/N: There! I hope this chapter was much better. However, I've been thinking about some things. While SOME of my chapters might be good, I'd say the over all flow is pretty dismal. I don't want to abandon this story, as I've already had two failed ones and other on hold so I can concentrate on this one, but it might be a good idea for a re-write. I was debating this since I updated last time, which is one of the reasons this chapter's late. I also took to writing over a number of days instead all in one go like I did before. I found this really relaxing and I hope that shows in this chapter. I'm still not too sure about restarting, because I have so much of this planned out I don't want to forget anything if I choose to rewrite.

On a separate note, there's a new topic for discussion I'd like to ask whoever is reading. Do you people like more diverse plots and scenes or just focus on one person (Harry)? I'm asking this because some people have told me that the story is too confusing with everything going on at once and there are so many things to keep track of. But I don't want to make the entire story revolve around JUST Harry, which can tend to get a bit boring. I know personally that when I read I especially don't like it when authors write about sub-pairings when all I really care about is the main pairing.

That aside, there's been an anonymous review that said that he/she doesn't understand my characterization of the characters in my story. I can't really say anything to justify Ron or other "lesser" characters because I forgot my mindset when I wrote about them, but Harry's behaviour is something I thought very hard about. I'm not sure if anyone else felt this, but after reading so many fanfiction with Harry reacting so strongly towards Sirius' death and then the Sixth book came out with Harry not seemingly affected by it at all… I got this image in my head about a more unfeeling Harry. I guess I'm always deciding whether or not that should be it, so Harry seems to have split personalities a bit at the moment. But for now, I'm going to chalk it up to the different Mana affecting his thought processes.

I believe that's the most of what I wanted to say. I'm not going to set a date for the next update because that'll probably only give me added pressure while disappointing whoever wants to read the next chapter.

Anyways, thanks to everyone who've reviewed, and Fredryck, I'll be contacting you soon (if you're reading this) about your ideas and such. I really appreciate your inputs and ideas, and your idea really intrigued me and I'll be honest when I say I didn't think about it. Anyways, I wanted to get this chapter up first so I hope there are no hard feelings on that. TheIllusiveOne, I'd be really interested in your opinion on characterization of the Harry Potter characters, if you have the time. I would really appreciate others opinions. This invitation of course goes out to everyone, so feel free to give all your comments, good or bad.

That said, I've had a LOT of new ideas for fanfics, but I don't have the time to start any of them. So if you're either interested in: Inuyasha, Pokemon, Naruto or Golden Sun and need an idea to get you started, I have some challenge fic ideas for you (though you will have to write main character/many pairings though lemons are NOT necessary). I only ask you to mention me in the credits of the story, and then you have free reign other then my challenge requirements. So contact me about that if you're interested.

That should be all, thanks to everyone reading, and I'd appreciate a review on your thoughts, and it doesn't all have to be compliments.

U-T Signing off…


	11. Goblins Are Annoying Little Creatures

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, a bit of other shows and books are involved such as Magic the Gathering, and Naruto (not enough to actually make it a crossover) is used.

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter

Arthur's Note: Hello everyone, I guess once again I am probably late for the update. To be honest, I just couldn't decide where to go with Harry from here. I want to advance the plot much quicker, and I want to get to some parts where the… romance-driven readers want to be, but I'm not sure about how rated "R" scenes work on fanfiction (dot) net since I've talked so much about pairings and so far hadn't really gotten far amongst any of them. Is it enough to just give a warning? Anyways, this is a filler chapter with a bit of a time skip because I don't want to have to describe everything Harry learns and his self-training. Since last chapter was action-packed, this chapter had to be a bit more peaceful. Hence, we have this semi-filler chapter. It's still focused on Harry, which I've decided will be mostly how this story will be written. So, enjoy for now. After this chapter, I'll probably be able to update faster because it's more action coming up (I figured out that I like action scenes a lot and seem to have somewhat of an affinity for them).

* * *

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Eleven:**

Goblins Are Annoying Little Creatures

* * *

Harry sighed as he looked over the fields of what he dubbed the "floating island" where he had confronted the army of skeletal creatures that he now knew were called "ghouls". To him, it felt like a couple of years had passed since then, though he wasn't sure if time passed at the same speed here as it did on Earth. Technically, it was still Earth, as the "floating island" was hidden somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean that surprisingly nobody had found. 

The island itself was strange. It appeared to have some kind of enlargement charm placed on it to give more space than physically possible. It also had a multitude of different environments in which Harry had trained for what appeared to be approximately two or three years. There were swamps, mountains, forests, plains, deserts, tundra areas, and more. Heck, there were even some smaller islands within the giant one, giving Harry the distinct impression of a multi-holed doughnut. The terrains that interested Harry the most however, were two deserted cities on the island. One was pretty modern, probably a parody of New York, Toronto, Paris, London or some other big city. There were no people in these cities, but Harry managed to practice stealth and tracking techniques with and without Mana through endless games of hide-and-seek with snuffles. Suffice to say, each of those games ended in the pygmy puff biting him.

He had learned quite a bit over the time he spent learning and training, though mostly more things he could do with Mana as well as understanding what was wrong with his eye. It appeared, much to the surprise of Dumbledore, that Harry had developed the Ten-Mirrored Eye during his "manifestation of Mana" all that time ago. It wasn't so much as that as one of the actual eyes that Harry had acquired.

The mirror of the eye that Harry had unlocked (the other 8 new eyes were still dormant) was called the Elgis Mirror, also known as the "Only Mirror". This magical mirror was passed down generation after generation in a less-known noble family in Europe. The mirror is rumored to have driven the entire family into insanity as it continuously infected their thoughts. The most peculiar thing about the mirror was that it despised all other glass products, hence the title of the "Only Mirror". The family's home apparently had no other glass products and if any of the children needed spectacles or glasses of any sort, they would soon find them dead with their eyes turned to opals.

The true strength of the Elgis Mirror, and thus the power of Elgis Eye, the "Only Eye", was the ability to control and (after much time spent developing and improving the power of the eye) destroy sight of all creatures with magic or Mana in their system. As well, it negated the abilities of other magical eyes, explaining what happened with Moody's magical eye. Subsequently, it explained why Harry couldn't open both of his eyes before. The very nature of the "Only Eye" forbids Harry from using his good eye with it at the same time.

Therefore, Harry could only open his left eye when his right was closed and vice-versa. This also forced Harry to learn how to activate the different eyes of his Ten-Mirrored eye. The method, as Dumbledore had explained to him after he had explained all of this to Harry, was to meditate and venture into his mindscape. Here, he found a "room" of sorts with twelve doors. One led to the rest of his mindscape, while eight were locked with chains and padlock, one was open, and two appeared able to be opened. The doors also looked different individually, with one black here (the open one), one white there, one with crystals in it here, and so forth. These doors apparently opened to reveal different mirrors, which Harry guessed represented his different eyes.

Though practice, Harry could now switch between his normal eye, the Eye of Erised, and the Elgis Eye with just a thought in his mind (1). He also mastered the use of the different eyes individually, and though he was not completely confident in his abilities concerning them, he was confident enough to probably use them in real combat situations without worry of hurting himself somehow.

The next change through his training was actually acquired within the span of a few days. It appeared that one of the large tomes that Dumbledore had him take from Hogwarts as they left was what Dumbledore called a "Forced-Skill Tome" (2). It was a very rare and powerful artifact that teaches full mastery of whatever skill or skills was inscribed in the text. The one Harry had, the only one that's still known to wizards in the modern world (as most of these had been hidden by some power ancient sorcerer or another), taught Occlumency and Legilmency.

To use it, Harry simply had to read everything and carefully remember almost each word in the text. It was surprising to Harry how the text seemed to break the subject of the two skills into words that he understood almost as if it was talking about Quidditch. Soon after Harry finished the book, and he promptly fainted for two months. When he woke up, he had spent the entire time in his mindscape learning first hand about the two subjects. He also woke up to a giant migraine and the fact that the tome had disappeared somewhere Harry didn't know, though he was sure Dumbledore did but wouldn't tell him.

The other Tome was apparently a "Book of Selections" (BS for short, though Harry didn't like to call it that after he found out how useful it was). The book apparently had the ability to absorb each and every book Harry wanted and compact all the information into itself. It even organized and sorted the information and offered many ways for Harry to view the information, whether it be book by book, subject by subject, search and find, chronologically, or another of a variety of ways. It had so many options Harry had to spend an entire week to learn all about it.

The last thing that Harry learned was probably also the most important. It was the main reason Dumbledore gave Harry that little "test" with the ghouls. While Harry did just fine by himself and performed more than acceptably, he wasn't thinking the more simple way that normal people would have thought in this situation. That was that Harry was supposed to want more people on his side. He was supposed to think about evening the odds. That is, rather than destroying the enemy, get more allies.

This led Harry to the world of summoning, necromancy, demonology, invocation, provocation, and much more. However, those weren't what Harry was supposed to learn, and he didn't really get a chance to learn much about them anyways. What Dumbledore was really trying to teach Harry was the previously mentioned Betas, or Blood-Earned True Advancements. These were apparently the abilities that certain family lines had developed, though nobody knew how they truly came about.

The Potters had two of such abilities. One was the "Veneficus Donum", the Magi's Gift, which he had already known about with the ability to see and manipulate Mana. The second, that was the entire purpose of Harry's little "test", was the "Legio Donum", the Legion's Gift. This ability, as Harry soon figured out, was the ability to create exact duplicates of himself, magic, body, clothing, everything was duplicated. These were clones that lasted until he forced them to dispel or they had taken life-threatening damages.

The first step to learning this was apparition, which, when learned, formed the basis for the ability. All he was required to do was stabilize his mind (with much thanks to his Occlumency training) enough to target multiple places for apparition, with in the resulted with Harry in one place and a matching clone in each of the other places. With practice, Harry could then switch with clones as well as control with apparition point he ended on and which one resulted in clones. The maximum, at the moment, was around two-dozen replications of himself. This was quite a feat for someone so young.

But throughout all of this, one thought was always on his mind. Why was he being taught all this? It couldn't have just been for Voldemort could it? His reasoning was that if all of this were for the fight with Voldemort, he would at least be getting lessons on the spells and dueling tactics of his enemy. He received none of that, however, and the question was eating him up more and more every day.

He remembered Dumbledore had said something about a mission for him after he had learned the Legio Donum. That was the reason that he was waiting at the plains right now. He was going to be meeting Dumbledore soon as he had been self-learning and practicing for the last few months. With a small familiar "whoosh", sound, Harry felt the presence of the deceased headmaster behind him.

"I take it that my training is finished for the moment Professor?" Harry asked, still having a habit of referring to Dumbledore from his late profession. "Indeed, Harry. But I must say that it has turned out quite well?" Dumbledore replied, more like making an observation than actually asking Harry a question. "No matter," the ghost continued, "it is time for you to return to the wizarding world, if only for a small amount of time."

This perked up Harry's interest. "What for sir?" He inquired, wondering if this really was about Voldemort after all. Dumbledore seemed to pause and think for a moment. "There are some issues that you have to deal with. For all that the entire wizarding world knows at the moment, you have been missing for almost three entire months. You must return and assure yourself an identity and position in the world."

"And, pray tell, how would I be doing that, Dumbledore?" Harry asked, his voice beginning to get a little edgy due to his dislike of other people telling him what to do. "We have been through this, Harry," Dumbledore replied patiently, "as of the day you entered my old office seeking Hogwart's help, you are my subordinate and will fulfill the tasks I set before you whether willingly or reluctantly."

True enough, Harry had heard this speech before. The first time was when he questioned who gave Dumbledore the authority to give him what he called "missions". Of course, he didn't buy it the first time, and he wasn't buying it now. There was nothing forcing Harry to obey, and both he and Dumbledore knew that. However, there was a reason for Harry to go along at the moment. That was the need for information. So far, Dumbledore had appeared to have so much knowledge about himself and his origins that even he wasn't sure about. He felt that Dumbledore was hiding something important, and as long as he does not know about any other ways to get the information that Dumbledore knows, he had to play along with what Dumbledore wanted. However, it didn't mean that he was just going to do whatever Dumbledore told him to do. He made sure to remind the dead man of that fact.

Scoffing lightly, Harry relented, knowing that this was going to end up nowhere if he kept fighting. "What are your orders?" He inquired, stressing the last word with a bit of spite. The aged ghost, apparently, either did not notice or, more likely, ignored it as he told Harry what he wanted. "You will be visiting Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley as well as Gringotts. It is preferable to visit the bank first, as you will receive the status and inheritances of all of your bloodlines to secure you a powerful position in the Wizarding world both economically and politically. Then, you are allowed to shop 'till your heart's content to arm yourself with more books, weapons, and anything else you desire. That is of course, in both alleys (extra stress was put on the word "both"). That should be all you need to know for the moment."

Harry stood there, not so much taking in the information as dissecting and analyzing it. If he was to become that powerful economically and politically, which Dumbledore implied, he was probably going to be using it for whatever manipulation that he wanted Harry to do. But there was a problem in all of this; he knew absolutely nothing about politics and other such underhanded skills. This meant a great chance of an increased involvement of Dumbledore in his life. He didn't like that one bit, but he can bite his tongue for now and see what's going to happen.

"Three questions." Harry stated, not even letting Dumbledore ask if there were any questions. "How am I going to be getting there and back? What about a change of clothes? Is there a time limit for this… mission?" There wasn't too much of an emotion in his voice as he said this. While he and Dumbledore got along rather amicably, when the question of authority came up, he wasn't as… chummy with the ghost. As if to answer Harry's first question, Dumbledore appeared to snap his ghostly fingers as a small amulet appeared around his neck. It wasn't anything special, merely a simple gold chain with a miniscule platinum dagger hanging from it.

Harry, through his eager experiments from the earlier days of training, knew that this was a Mana-activated portkey. From the looks of it, this particular one activated through blue Mana. He was a bit surprised, as he had suspected Dumbledore was going to force him to apparate there and back, which would be difficult since he didn't know where he was.

The second question was answered too as his clothes, which had been worn and dirty, were replaced with fancy black dress robes make from one silk or another. His shirt, pants, and shoes underwent similar transformations and he felt like one the rich idiotic purebloods that he disliked so much.

For his third question, Dumbledore spoke instead of answering some other way like he did previously. "You can take up to two days and then will return here. Snuffles and Frostmourne will remain here, while you may take the Book of Selections and this with you." As he finished that sentence, Dumbledore produced a small sack in front of Harry. "A pocket universe storage bag. It can hold enough to fill three castles the size of Hogwarts, so it should be sufficient. Simply channel red Mana for it to enlarge and blue Mana to shrink it. If that is all, you should get going."

Harry nodded, before taking the bag and handing over a sleeping Snuffles and (carefully) Frostmourne over. He stared at the blade for a bit, wondering why he still wasn't allowed to wield it, but it didn't matter at the moment, as he nodded his goodbye and channeled his Mana into the necklace and disappeared from Dumbledore's sight.

* * *

Upon reaching his destination, the first thing that Harry noticed was that it was dark and cold. If he was right, then it should actually be sometime between summer and autumn, but either Dumbledore lied to him about how much time had passed or there was something else going on. What was the problem that caused Harry to distrust Dumbledore? Well, at least one of the problems anyways? It was snowing. Though that seems to be a bit of an understatement since it was more like a blizzard. 

Looking around him, Harry realized that he was in a back alley facing Quality Quidditch Supplies, which brought him a slight smile remembering how he used to love the sport so much, but probably wouldn't get to play again for a long time. Sighing to himself just a bit, Harry conjured a thick dark cloak with a hood via blue Mana and put it over himself. Putting up the hood and holding the cloak close to him, he made his way into the relatively empty streets of Diagon Alley. The moment he was visible to the public, however, everyone seemed to walk away quickly, probably hoping to avoid him. This didn't confuse Harry, as he thought he must look pretty intimidating with his face hidden as well as his darker cloak.

Walking towards the bank, which was surprisingly hard for Harry, as the snowstorm seemed to be getting worse, he suddenly heard a bell ringing from his left as well as a plethora of childish feminine giggles and boyish chuckles. Turning around, Harry found a very welcoming sight. Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes was the sign on top of the store from which a group of kids (probably Hogwart's students) exited. It appeared to be another branch, as it was different from the one Harry had visited before, which probably meant that Fred and George were more than successful with their business. There was probably high demand due to the recent darker times.

The customers that left were probably around his age; well, excluding his extra two years or so of his training. He could make out probably five or so girls and three guys. He could also make out that the guys and girls were form different circles as the girls were keeping to themselves with whispers and giggles while the guys were just unknowingly following them, horsing around and laughing merrily. That was about as much as he could identify though, as their faces were too far for Harry to see with the snow around them.

Smiling at the sight of the group of students, who where now getting out their mittens and scarves and what not, Harry walked towards them. He wasn't trying to approach them or anything; it was just that they were going opposite ways with them going away from Gringotts. Hoping to avoid a confrontation, Harry kept his face hidden and gaze down as he passed them. At least, he tried to.

One of the girls he was passing apparently slipped on a small patch of ice formed with the weather. As a natural reflex of some sort, Harry turned around and caught her, eliciting a small "EEEP!" from the girl as well as catching the attention of all of the students. Quickly, Harry set her upright and began to walk away from them faster and hoping to be left in peace. Once again, trouble seemed to come to him.

"Hey man, you think you can just get a grope and get away with it?" One of the boys, a rather big one, shouted towards him as he continued to walk. Harry ignored it, before he heard running footsteps behind him. Once more on instinct, Harry sidestepped without looking back and the boy rushed passed him and fell because of the momentum.

By this time, the girls had pretty much caught up to him while the other two guys went over to their friend and tried to help him up. "Wait!" The girl, who he guessed was the one he had caught from falling, yelled through the snow, though to who Harry wasn't sure. "He wasn't groping me, I just fell and he caught me!" At that point Harry recognized everyone around here. Well, he kind of did. They were all Hogwarts students, for sure, though he only recognized their faces, as he couldn't recall their names. He was pretty sure the boys were from Gryffindor while the girls were pretty much unknown to him since they were standing behind, so he still couldn't see him. "Why the hell are you protecting this pervert? Are you girls supposed to hate guys like him?" The boy on the ground asked.

Before anyone could answer or stop him, he got up with surprising speed and aimed a punch for Harry's face. Harry merely tilted his head to the side a bit before walking around everyone and started for Gringotts again. Angered due to being ignored by a stranger, the boy took out his wand and aimed for Harry's back. Before he could mutter a spell, however, a snowball caught his wand dead on and knocked it out of his hand. Everyone stared at a spot on the ground that Harry had just passed to see a small, scooped hole about the size of the snowball.

Harry sighed, as he was finally nearing the doors of Gringotts. He felt the magical signatures of the three boys move away from him along with some of the girls, but it appeared two were following him. He paid them no attention as he entered the doors of the bank. Looking at a nearby clock, he was not surprised to find that it was around 10 pm. He walked up to a counter just as the two girls that were following him entered the bank.

Glancing behind him, he mentally groaned when he finally realized who the girls were. Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones, both form Hufflepuff. While he did not see Hannah ever since she was taken away from their school last yea, he had no particular desire to talk to her face to face at the moment.

He felt their gaze drift towards him as he turned towards the goblin teller. Then he realized that he had a problem. He didn't have his wand, and didn't have his key. The only thing that he had to identify himself was his scar, which meant that he had to take off his hood. This, of course, meant that he lost quite a bit in terms of chances of staying hidden. It wasn't that he wanted to hide, but he didn't want to be questioned by too many people, which may result in many unpleasant things for him.

The goblin cleared his throat, clearly impatient. Harry quickly snapped to attention and began to address the goblin as he felt Susan and Hannah get in line behind him. Coughing slightly, Harry tried his luck. "Err yes, hello. I seemed to have lost my key, and I do not have my wand with me at the moment. Is there a way I can speak to a vault manager here or something of the sort to get another key?"

The goblin narrowed his eyes before answering. "It seems awfully strange that a wizard during these times would wander out without his wand." He ended with a sneer directed a Harry's covered face. "Oh yes, I do seem to have a touch of Darwinism in me don't I? But, I would really to have access to my vaults." Harry replied, hoping that the sneer would fade away sooner or later.

"And just who are you exactly, valued customer?" The teller asked as his sneer increased. "About that…" Harry said, having problems keeping up the pleasant act, "I would rather remain anonymous if that is possible." "But how are we supposed to take you to your vault if we don't even know who you are?" The goblin inquired rather loudly, drawing the attention of pretty much everyone in the room. Some people had fear in their eyes while others weren't really concerned with what was going on here.

Harry could practically feel the scrutiny of everyone in the room. "I would merely like to converse with a vault manager in private, if you will. If it will make you feel better, I am willing to go through an identity test through blood or magic, to satisfy your… security measures?" He was really starting to feel annoyed with the bank.

The goblin snorted before nodding its head in a condescending manner. Taking out a small goblet and dagger, it placed them in front of Harry, looking expectantly at him while also signaling under his desk for the guards to be ready for action. Harry, of course, noticed this, as he held out his flesh hand while being immense relieve that he had remembered to wear gloves so as to hide his un-arm hand. Taking off the glove just a bit to not reveal too much, he made a small cut with the dagger before letting a bit of blood into the goblet.

As soon as he was finished, the goblin took the goblet and started muttering things under his breath while tracing select runes engraved on the goblet. When the resulting white smoke cleared a bit, the goblin's eyes widened as he dropped the goblet in surprise and shattering it. Thinking something was wrong, the guards quickly advanced to apprehend Harry. Harry, in response, did a quick back flip and landed in a crouch. "What is the meaning of this?" He asked the teller, narrowing his eyes at the surrounding guards and the wizards and witches all of whom seem to be watching his every move now.

Some goblin, which Harry guessed was a captain of the guards or something like that, screeched something in gobbledygook (sp?) and caused the rest of the guards to advance. "Wait a minute!" The teller tried to yell over the commotion but the damage was already done. As Harry completed a floor-sweeping kick that knocked several goblins to their feet, one particular guard tried to thrust its spear towards his head. It did not make contact with Harry, as he had dodged, but it did pierce the hood, forcing it to drop and reveal the face and scar of Harry Potter for the world to see.

End Chapter

* * *

Footnotes: 

(1) I'm not quite sure if I gave him the option of just having his eye back to normal before. It basically just means that Harry isn't using any "special" eye at that time, so he has his original eye back when none of the others are active.

(2) I got this idea from the tomes in Warcraft. I thought, if you can just click the button for the book, and your hero can just automatically get increased stat or whatever, then you might as well be able to have something like this too, to "automatically" teach you something. Don't worry about making a Super-Harry though because I'm not going to just give him book after book, he's going to have to work for them. That is, if I decide on including any other tomes at all.

A/N: That's it for this filler chapter. There's nothing much else to say for the moment. I was looking over some of the earlier chapters and I realized that I actually said something about Remus/OC and Ron/Herm pairing. I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that, so you'll have to bear with me when I say it's probably not really going to happen in the sense of there being parts of that playing out. I mean, I might mention that Ron and Hermione paired up or whatever, but there'll be no actual plot for their romance or anything like that since, honestly, I'm not too big a fan of either. With that said, I've changed the first chapter, only removing the part about pairings.

Anyways, hope this is satisfactory for now.

Peace

U-T Signing off


	12. Crypt

Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, a bit of other shows and books are involved such as Magic the Gathering, and Naruto (not enough to actually make it a crossover) is used.

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter

Arthur's Note: Surprise, surprise! I'm actually going ahead of schedule this time (at least, I started the day after last chapter was released). However, I must say that while I'm not demanding reviews, I do hope that everyone would give in what they think about this story so far. But I'm still grateful for those of you who do review, and it's for you guys that I'm having this chapter up so quickly! Everyone should give them a round of applause. Anyways, here's the next chapter.

* * *

**The Gathering Series Book One**

**The Gathering Twilight**

**Chapter Twelve:**

Crypt

* * *

The world came to a pause the moment that Harry's hood fell. At least, that's how it seemed like to him. He quickly ducked his head, avoiding that chance that those who haven't seen his scar yet actually seeing it. Thinking fast, he looked around for an inspiration to get out of this mess. It was then that he caught what he though was one of the luckiest breaks in his life. 

Goblins, as Professor Binns had tried to teach them before, were very adept at forging weapons and warfare magic. Therefore, it was no surprise that they would have enchanted weapons that glowed a variety of colours from the magic cast on them. The first part of Harry's lucky break was the colour of the enchanted spear. It was red. In addition, since Harry's cloak was wet from the snow that it had gathered, there was a small wet area on the tip of the spear that had taken off his hood.

With this information, Harry had one of what he proudly calls "a flash of brilliance". Quickly clutching the area over his scar as if in pain, he gathered enough green Mana to grow his left index finger nail out into a sharp claw. With that, he pierced through his gloves and added a scratch over his scar so as to make a wound over his forehead to camouflage it. Then he hurriedly cancelled the affects of the green Mana and used a bit of blue Mana to fix his glove.

With that done, Harry pretended to pant a bit from the pain and slowly got up. It didn't matter if anyone else saw him, as long as they didn't recognize him. When he did stand up, he noticed that the teller had got the guards to stand down and was coming towards him with a bit of apprehension in his voice.

Harry also took a look at his surroundings to observe what was going on. To his delight, most people, after seeing his face and not recognizing him, returned back to their businesses. There were still a few that were watching him, including Hannah and Susan, but Harry felt that he had handled things rather well. He guessed that most people who did see his scar passed it off as a trick from the light when they saw the wound on his head.

With all this in mind, Harry turned to the teller with anger carefully displayed on his face. "What is the meaning of this?" Harry all but shouted, as he glared at the goblin. "Is this how the bank treats all their clients?" He continued with a sneer at the now paling goblin.

"Off course not, sir. Please forgive us but… one can never be too careful these days." The goblin replied with something akin to fear in its voice, much to the astonishment of the other goblins and observers watching what was going on. Harry himself was a bit surprised at how the goblin seemed to quiver, but he didn't pay it any thought. "Then would you kindly take me to see a vault manager now?" Harry asked coolly, not wanting any more to do with this particular ground of goblins, but still had to due to his objectives.

"Rig-right this way, please follow me." The goblin stuttered as it turned and headed towards a set of beautiful oak doors to the right of where they were. Harry immediately followed, noticing that Hannah and Susan were acting a bit hesitant as if wonder if they would be able to follow Harry now that he couldn't be followed due to the situation.

Harry smirked a bit to himself as he followed the small creature in front of him through several hallways and sets of stairs. When they finally stopped, it was in front of a pair of marble doors. There was an intricate pattern on the door that Harry guessed might have been some logo or another of the bank. Under the pattern was a small plaque that read "High Counselor Gluttonmole". Harry blinked and stared at the name a bit before being snapped out of his thoughts by the goblin teller. "Please excuse me, mister Potter, and allow me to inform the Counselor of your arrival." With that, the small goblin knocked on the door three times before entering through the doors, making sure to shut them behind him.

Harry stayed there, waiting and contemplating what was going on. He seemed to be thinking and analyzing a lot these days, but he wasn't too concerned with this especially if it results in something beneficial for him. He wondered if all "account managers" were given the rank "High Counselor" such as this Gluttonmole person. It was a bit obvious that the goblin was someone of a notable rank in the goblin world, but he wasn't exactly sure. But, the only thing he can really do at the moment was wait see what was going to happen, and that was what he did.

Harry wasn't too surprised when he realized that the goblin would take quite a long time getting the counselor to see him. What he was surprised with, however, was the sight of a sweaty, pale, and wide-eyed bank teller coming out of the room quickly before settling himself in front of Harry. "Mr. Potter, please enter. High Counselor Gluttonmole will see you now." The goblin seemingly squeaked before scurrying away from him as if he was the plague.

'That was rather interesting,' Harry thought, turning back towards the door and allowed himself in, seeing that there wasn't anyone to show him inside. As he entered, he could feel the tense atmosphere of the room and it's sole inhabitant. There appeared to have been a conflict of some sort quite recently before Harry entered the room, which led him to believe that there was some sort of silencing charm placed either on the doors or the room itself.

Before he could ponder any of this, however, he knew that he should concentrate more on the matter at hand. "Ah, Mr. Potter, I have heard of your ill treatment by bank teller Gobbels. On behalf of this bank, we give you our sincerest apologies." The goblin, which Harry noticed was dressed rather well, spoke with an honest tone of voice. Harry gave a slight nod to indicate that the apology was accepted, took a seat that Gluttonmole gestured to. "I trust that you are here for a thorough claim of all of the vaults, titles, and properties that are yours by right since you have recently come of magical maturity? (1)"

Harry nodded again; not feeling compelled to speak since the goblin was doing well on his own so far. At this gesture, the goblin broke out into a hearty laugh, apparently amused by something Harry had no knowledge of. "It has been a while since I've last met a wizard who hasn't made a complaint within the first five minutes of meeting me." At this, Harry raised an eyebrow, though more to show that he was confused than anything else. "But you have not wronged me, and you have already apologized for the behaviour of your subordinate, so I do not believe I have a reason to complain. Though I would like it if we can get to business, I do have other matters to attend to after all." Harry spoke, letting a bit of Voldemort's Slytherin side influence him a bit in the form of a more elegant speech.

The goblin nodded, suddenly turning serious and opened one of probably many drawers from the desk. Rummaging around for a bit, Gluttonmole took out an old-looking scroll and set it in front of Harry. He then proceeded to break its wax seal and unrolled the parchment for Harry to see. On it was a list of thousands of family names in alphabetical order.

The goblin took a look at Harry's slightly curious expression before starting an explanation. "This is a list of all of the families that have a vault in Gringotts. Even if the families are no longer existent, as long as they had a vault here, their names are automatically recorded on this scroll." As he said this, he produced a dagger much like the one Gobbels had earlier. "Taking this dagger, please place a drop of blood on that small mark there at the bottom of the scroll." Here, Gluttonmole pointed to a small gold circle on the scroll with an engraved "G" on it.

Harry did as he was told, smearing a drop of blood onto the circle. The instant this had happened, almost a third of the names had glowed. Harry looked at it curiously, having a slight idea of what all of this meant. Instead of voicing his suspicions, however, he stayed silent and waited for Gluttonmole to explain. After all, it wouldn't do for him to say something stupid by accident and cause the goblins to for one reason or another forbid him from his inheritance. Though Harry didn't truly care about it, he didn't want to fail Dumbledore's "mission" and what would be the consequences of that (ironically, he can't imagine what the consequence would be like).

"The family names that reacted to your blood is all of the families that you are now head of, and as such you are now in sole possession of all belongings, titles, and other properties previously owned by the past family heads." Gluttonmole said with a small smirk playing on his lips. Harry blinked a few times, looking at the scroll. He couldn't say that he was surprised, and with good reason too.

It was when he was still being introduced to his Legio Donum, that he had asked the question most relevant to the situation at hand. Simply put, Harry had asked if he had any more of these "Donums", wondering if there was a chance that one ancestor or another might have had another ability. It wasn't that he was greedy for more power, but he wanted to know his full arsenal when the time came to fight, whether against Voldemort or some other Dark Wannabe. Dumbledore's answer surprised him at the time, which was the reason he wasn't surprised now.

He had told him that his blood contained many significant abilities including all of the ones that were deemed "significant". This added up to around a dozen or two of such abilities. Dumbledore had proceeded to explain that the rest of the wizarding populace had hunted down most bloodlines with rare and useful abilities. The ending result was Harry along with a few other families that managed to keep their abilities either by hiding them or being too powerful to be hunted by the general populace.

Harry had also asked what he meant by "significant" abilities, to which Harry was given a small, yet very amusing lecture. He learned that most pureblood families had an ability of some sort, though not all of them were very… well… significant. For example, he learned that Crabbe and Goyle, very closely related families, used to have a very powerful ability called the "Corpus Donum", the Body's Gift (2). As the name implies, the two families' members all had large bodies, sometimes muscular, sometimes… pleasantly plump.

However, the gift had deteriorated, as defects began to form within the families recently. That is, the gift began to deteriorate the brain of the members of the two families in order to have more tissue (through some magic or another that Harry didn't understand) for the bodies of Crabbe and Goyle family members. Such a "gift", no doubt, was not something that would be in any way useful to Harry.

That was about all that Dumbledore told him though, and Harry was disappointed, wondering if there were any other such defects in the Pureblood Hierarchy, for lack of a better word. The last thing that Dumbledore had told Harry with regards to this issue was that as the subsequent heir to all of these blood gifts, Harry was also now the sole heir to quite a few families, including (Harry wasn't surprised) the Hogwarts founders, Merlin, Morgan Le Fay, and many such famous wizards and witches.

Before Harry could comment, however, Dumbledore shot down any attempts that Harry might have had at gaining an ego (he really didn't have any such attempts in the beginning, but Dumbledore probably liked his voice too much to notice that). He had finished off saying that Harry was only in such a case because it was arranged this way. Apparently, the founders, along with all of his other ancestors, were under the command of the same… thing… that Dumbledore was apparently serving.

As such, this leader of sort orchestrated, in a way, the birth of Harry. Therefore, there was no beautiful coincidence in which everyone was happy and was in love and the most powerful people just happened to love each other. No, this was the work of some cruel dictator, that held its own will above the rest. This was especially proven when Harry remembered one of the muggle legends of Merlin and Morgan being siblings yet still had their son, Mordred. It made sense really, if they were, for reasons unknown to Harry, subservient to a common master who then commands them to create an heir for said master's goals.

This also raised the question of who this "master" was, as it (Harry didn't believe it was a person, so there was no point trying to guess the gender of this entity) would have had to live or at least exist in some form ever since all that time ago. That was a different matter, as Harry realized now that he was lost in thought again and had to ask the goblin in front of him to repeat what it had said prior.

"I said," replied Gluttonmole, "that we have prepared a tome with an account of all of your possessions, including all properties, artifacts, businesses, titles, and so forth." Here, the high counselor gestured to a medium sized black book that was in a fairly new condition. The book was most likely brought in by another goblin while Harry wasn't paying attention, but he really didn't care at the moment. Harry nodded silently and took the offered item.

"We have also taken several liberties with your vaults and properties, as instructed by your magical guardian, Albus Dumbledore," Gluttonmole said slowly, waiting for Harry's reaction. Instead of an indignant outburst of some sort, Harry looked merely raised an eyebrow, already used to the deceased headmaster's manipulative tendencies. "What, pray tell, would those… liberties be?" Harry inquired, wonder what the conniving old man had done this time, also wondering if this "mission" was in actuality a test to see how much Harry will bend to Dumbledore or his master's will.

"It is nothing too important, but we should probably address the most significant issues first. That being said, I am sure that I do not need to remind you that you are now the head of quite a few wizarding families?" Questioned the goblin, once more looking at Harry with interest. After all, what goblin wouldn't be interested in such an obviously powerful, influential, and, most importantly, rich person of the wizarding society?

Harry nodded in silence once again, wonder what Dumbledore had to do with his status of being the family head of all those families. Granted, he was the only member of those families, but that only made him more important to those bloodlines. "We have arranged for a fusion family of sorts, as I have no doubt that you would rather not be addressed with dozens of family names. As such, all of the vaults have been combined into one giant one sorted into sections of artifacts, books, gold, and so forth. What you now have the choice of, however, is if you want to create a new family name to represent all of the families you carry with your blood, just as you represent the families in person."

Gluttonmole paused a bit, as if to think about whether to say more, but decided against it and see Harry's response first. Speaking of the boy-who-lived, Harry considered what was said. It was obvious a good idea to have a new identity, and creating a new name did appeal to him, as his changes made him no longer felt like "Harry Potter". He was thinking about what name to call his new family that seemed to contain the blood of so many others.

He wanted something to relate to all of the individual families, but knew that wasn't very wise. So he decided to honour the two most important names to him. Those were Potter and Black. Therefore, he felt that he might as well honour his only father figure in his life that wasn't made-up or dead. With that said, he decided on the name Crypt.

He had originally started with Black-Potter, but decided to play a small pun with the actual literal translations of the two surnames. A potter was a craftsman, and Black, at that moment, reminded him of death. Well, more specifically, it reminded him of Sirius's death, but it was death nonetheless. So following that line of thought, Harry went from "Bone" to "Grave" to "Headstone" before finally ending on his chosen name, Crypt.

Harry told of his approval to the suggestion of creating a new family name and told the goblin of his choice for a family name. If Gluttonmole was disturbed by the dark tone of the name, he didn't show it. Instead, he gave what seemed to be a smile before handing over some papers for Harry to sign along with where to write his new family name.

With the name settled, Gluttonmole took out a rather large briefcase and opened it facing Harry. In the case were dozens of beautifully crafted rings. Some were more expensive than others. Some were more beautiful than others. Some were magical. Some were shiny. However, all of them had one thing in common. They bared the family crests of the many families. Harry had realized this when he saw the familiar crest of Slytherin.

Gluttonmole took Harry's pause in examining the rings as his cue to explain what he was doing. "With the combination of the families, the family rings will have to be combined as well. We have arranged for an expert goblin jewels-smith to combing all of these into one ring. Is that acceptable?" Harry's attention snapped up from his observation of the rings and nodded once more, not wanting to waste any words through a verbal response. After all, his silence was working pretty well so far… right?

The high counselor snapped his crooked fingers as another goblin arrived to take the case of family rings. "With that done," Gluttonmole said, "is there anything else I can help you with?" The tone, while pleasant, was definitely faked. Harry inwardly sighed as he realized that he couldn't answer this without a verbal response. "Yes please, I would like to check out my vaults, if that is all right." He replied, hoping he didn't forget anything.

Gluttonmole nodded before getting up and opening a drawer and retrieving a simple elegant silver vault key. He passed it to Harry, before gesturing for the wizard to follow him. They walked to an adjacent room, where Harry saw many runes laid out in a circular fashion on the ground. Weary of his past experiences with such circles, Harry eyed the floor a bit before coming to a stop as the goblin in front of him did as well.

Here, Gluttonmole turned to address Harry. "This is the only way to get into the oldest vault in the European branch of Gringotts. Once we have been there once, you can use your key as a portkey that is specified for your use to enter the vault whenever you need. To use it, simply smear some of your blood into the key and mutter "Greed" to activate it. Repeat the process once in the vault, and you'll be returned to your former location. Should you need to communicate with a goblin, merely ask for one while in the vault and a goblin should be there shortly for your tasks."

That said, Harry watched as the goblin said some quick incantations before a blinding golden light engulfed them and they soon found themselves in front of a large double set of doors. There was a "C" stylized in a bloody and dark manner that marked the doors, which Harry felt very suitable for his new name. What he didn't know was that the original purpose of the mark was to represent the fallen Wizard-city Camelot.

Approaching the doors, his guide motioned for Harry to open the doors. Harry pressed his left hand on the doors and suddenly felt a powerful probing sensation throughout his entire body. With an eerie red glow from the "C" mark, the doors opened surprisingly without a sound. Harry was in a chamber with one door in front and to each side of him. Of course, there was also the open door to his back. Here, Gluttonmole coughed to get Harry's attention.

"The defense of this vault are outside," he said, gesturing to beyond the open doors behind Harry, who turned to see nothing but darkness and the small patch of a floor that he and the goblin had stood on when they first arrived. "From here on, it is all safe. At least, it is for you. The door to the left contains all of the gold in your possession, including billions of galleons, and the odd collection of sickles and knuts. The one to the right are all of the books and artifacts from the various family vaults. The middle door leads to more artifacts, though these are all family heirlooms and were personal weapons and belongings of your ancestors. Another door connected to the back of the middle room leads to the final room with a full collection of magical creatures' eggs, and a variety of resources for forging, potion making, and so forth."

Harry nodded a bit, taking everything in. He really shouldn't be surprised, what with knowing everything beforehand, but it was still, at the very least, exciting to be told of all of the riches now in his possession. However, before he could get lost in thoughts about how he could literally swim in pools of gold, Harry steered his train of thought forcefully back towards his task set by Dumbledore.

"Do you have any means for me to access my money without visiting my vault continuously? More importantly, though, I need the method to be able to hide my identity. It wouldn't be beneficial for me to let everyone know about my presence whenever I am making a purchase, now would it?" Harry asked Gluttonmole. The goblin paused to think for a little while, before reaching into some inner pocket or another. He mumbled something, and Harry could hear a small pop from where Gluttonmole was reaching.

Withdrawing his hand, Gluttonmole took out a small pouch and handed it over to Harry. Seeing the inquisitive glance the wizard was sending him, the goblin explained the use of the item. "Within that pouch is an infinite amount of smaller pouches. Take one of those pouches, channel a bit of magic, and say the amount of money you need along with what currency you need it in if it is muggle money. The pouch would then be suddenly filled with the required amount. This way, should you need to pay a large amount of gold, all you need to do is to simply hand over the pouch. Many stores are aware of how this works, and should accept it. If not, simply dump the contents of the bag onto the counter."

Harry nodded in understanding. "That is all, I think I can go on from here by myself." Knowing a dismissal when he heard one, Gluttonmole bowed slightly before disappearing with another popping sound. Harry quickly turned towards his vaults, preparing to go through his possessions.

* * *

Several hours later… 

Harry found himself at the doors of Gringotts after he had used his vault key to get himself out. He was beyond tired from his time in the vaults. He had to use the Tome of Selection's auto-record ability while he looked through everything else. He had no other choice since there were too many books for him to be able to look over which ones he wanted. The jewels, gold, and most other things he mostly took a slight glance towards and didn't really touch them. Rather, Harry started heaving every weapon, magical and otherwise, into the bag that Dumbledore had given him.

He also did not touch any of the heirlooms as he set those aside. Part of the reason was that everything was on display (with accompanying tags to identify the objects) and arranged so elegantly that it felt like he was in a museum. He couldn't really bring himself to touch the items. The other part of the reason was that Harry didn't want to use weapons and tools that previously belonged to his ancestors. Sure, the various wands, staves, and other items were tempting in their power, but Harry knew that the items wouldn't suit him as much as it would their original owners. Besides, this defeated the purpose and fun of finding weapons that would respond best to him.

Speaking of which, Harry had found one weapon in the artifact vault, not an heirloom that was used by a previous ancestor, which seemed to be rather attached to him. It was unsurprisingly a blade, almost identical in shape with Frostmourne, but this one Harry was allowed to touch. Well, at least Dumbledore didn't tell him he couldn't touch it. The sword's handle and sheath were silver with gold trim and black rune-like markings. The blade was a shining light blue with a misty white aura and similar coloured runes. Looking carefully, Harry could make out the words "Finis Venatio" on the blade. "_End Game_" was a fitting name for it, he had decided.

After strapping on the weapon and making sure to hide it from side, Harry ventured into the vault containing magical eggs and potions ingredients. He didn't feel any particular need to hatch anything there, and he didn't have any potions that he was planning on making, so he left everything there as well. What Harry did do, however, was remind himself to look for Hedwig when he had the time, since he had not seen his familiar ever since the Hogwarts incident.

Noticing that it was now early morning, and the snowstorm had only lessened, and not stopped, Harry drew his cloak closer to him as he made his way through every bookstore open. He also noted happily that Susan and Hannah were no longer there, and he went through the stores with too much trouble. He had to, in a way, ask the Tome of Selections which books he should be that the tome didn't already include. The tome produced a list at each store of books that weren't copied into it and Harry went about buying it with relative easy.

He felt no desire to visit any of the other shops, though he did visit an old-fashioned smith-like shop right after entering Knockturn Alley. The shop, while having several impressive magical weapons, held nothing of importance to Harry. However, there was something that caught his eye. In the light armors section, Harry spotted what appeared to be medium length metal plates attached to bandanas and ribbons. Questioning the shopkeeper, he learned that those were forehead protectors for those that did not want to use the conventional helmet.

Harry had observed the items a bit before coming to a decision. Because of the simplicity of the items, the shopkeeper offered to make Harry a custom one for a slightly increased price. The process to make it was also relatively quick. After discussing the possible enchantments and materials, Harry commissioned his own forehead protector.

The metal was to be made from a solution of dragon scales and dementor fangs. The enchantments included never-break runes, low-level magic resistance runes, and other such basic enchantments. The most prominent enchantment, at least to Harry, was a series of runes that acted as an extra protective layer over his mind, strengthening his Occlumency shields. Lastly, the plate was to be attached to a ribbon made from a silk made from very finely and skillfully spun thestral fur. With this material, some people may not be able to see the ribbon, as they had not see death. It wasn't really necessary, but Harry enjoyed the prospect of messing with people's heads.

So Harry watched as the smith (shopkeeper) molded the metal before hardening it into three plates, one slightly thinner than the other two while the other two had small depressions the size of the smaller piece. He then proceeded to craft and engrave the runes with some sort of blood and a black dagger onto the smallest piece. After all of the runes and enchantments had been placed, the shopkeeper placed the smaller piece between the two other pieces so that the other two seemed to act like a container for it. Muttering a spell, the smith and Harry watched as the line separating the two outer metal pieces glow before disappearing, leaving one complete piece of metal.

At this point, the shopkeeper took out a large rolled-up batch of an eerily black material. He then took cut off a sizeable portion of the material before folding it over countless times and casting a spell on it to result in a single dense ribbon of the material. With that done, one more spell combined the metal and the ribbon into a forehead protector. Lastly, Harry was asked if he wanted a symbol of some kind on the forehead protector, like a family crest of some sort.

Harry thought about asking him to engrave the same "C" onto the metal like the one on the vault's door, but decided against it in case it raises questions. With that, Harry paid for the item and tied the forehead protector onto his head. More importantly, he made it cover his scar, the original purpose for buying the item. Even though he could now walk around without his hood on since nobody would recognize him, it was still snowing outside and he was in Knockturn alley, so he decided to continue in the same manner as before.

Continuing the same process with the bookstores as before, Harry eventually found himself in front of the last store he needed to visit. "Wallace's Wicked Wands" was the store title overhead. If Harry had not sensed a great concentration of white and black Mana from the place, he would have overlooked it. Looking closely at the store, he realized that there was a light notice-me-not charm on it.

Shrugging to himself, and thinking that having a wand to use would make him seem less suspicious when fighting, he entered the store. There was a small bell ringing as he entered, and Harry soon found himself in front of millions of caged magical creatures. He walked a small path towards a desk with an old and shriveled looking man behind it with two gray eyes, one freakishly bigger than another.

"Good Thursday, fellow wiz, how can I make your day wickedly delightful?" The old man crowed, squinting up at him. "I would like two custom made wands, money is no matter that you need to worry about." Harry replied coolly, hoping to sound like a "proper" pureblood. The old man, who Harry guessed was named Wallace, gave a not-so-toothy grin before motioning for Harry to follow him through a curtained door.

"You can drop the act, Mr. Potter, Mr. Crypt, whatever you want to be called." The old man said, once they went through the door. Harry stared at him with wide eyes at his identity being known. Not only that, the voice from the man seemed awfully young. His unvoiced question was answered when the old man disrobed and Harry saw something he had never seen before.

Where the old man's stomach would have been, was an opening with multiple levers and a seat. On top of the seat was what appeared to be to be a small child of some sort. It wasn't entirely human, as it had two furry orange ears on top of its head as well as a similar coloured tail and two ridiculously large and cute baby blue eyes. He was wearing a small red vest with matching shorts.

Harry stared at him and the old man he was in. Now that he could see it in its entirety, he realized that it was a robot or puppet of some sort that the child was obviously operating. "Hi there! I'm Wallace the gifted and wonderful child prodigy!" The small cat-boy said, bouncing up and down happily and jumping upon a small desk before bowing in front of Harry.

Staring at the child incredulously, Harry wondered why everywhere he went, something weird had to happen. "Um… hello. How do you know who I am?" He asked, wanting to know what this little boy knew about him. Wallace posed in a thoughtful position looking up at the ceiling. "Well… I can see your scar right there!" Wallace replied, pointing where the ribbon covered his scar.

Harry's eyes widened as he realized the implications. He had used the cloth part of the protector to cover his scar… this meant that people who did not see someone die could have seen his scar. He was suddenly thankful for his decision to keep his hood on as he shifted his forehead protector to the side to cover his scar with the metallic part.

Wallace beamed at Harry for apparently no reason, which freaked him out a bit, but he still had business to do. "So, can you make me the wands?" Harry asked, wondering if he should have looked for another place for a wand. The cat-boy grinned happily and nodded vigorously as he scrambled at speeds Harry didn't know were possible. After a few seconds, there were a variety of things in two separate identical piles placed on the table, things that Harry had no idea about.

After Wallace had finally calmed down, he looked at Harry expectantly. "Place your left hand over the materials on the left side, then the right hand with the right side. That way, we can see which reacts best with which hand." Instructed the small boy, still bouncing on the balls of his feet. Harry nodded as he did so. Soon enough, something glowed from each pile where one of his hands was near.

Harry looked at Wallace, whose eyes had gotten, if possible, bigger and sparkly. "Wow…" he said, looking at Harry as if in hero-worship. Afterwards, he took out a small notepad and started writing furiously in it. "So, a bone-type medium for the right hand and a metal-type medium for the left. This is so AWESOME!" Wallace commented, all bust screaming with excitement at the last part. This caused Harry to sweat drop a little bit at the enthusiasm of the small child.

Before Harry could comment on what Wallace meant, the cat-boy was rushing around the room once more. Before Harry could say "Boo!" there were now two different piles in front of him, this time different from one another. Harry repeated the process again, this time noticing that a particular jade coloured object from his right and a gold object from his left were glowing. He turned to Wallace to see that he was once again scribbling down furiously.

They went through the same process a couple more times. The first time with items in various shades of green and gold for the right and left piles respectively. The second time Harry couldn't tell the difference between the items in their respective piles. Harry could see that Wallace was getting excited more and more as they went through the various material testing stages. He was so excited that he could swear that Wallace's hand was shaking as he was writing, but he was writing so fast that Harry couldn't tell for sure.

Wallace then walked Harry back to the front of the store with all of the creatures and asked Harry to repeat a similar process in locating the which creature resonated with his magic. Harry did as he was told and walked around holding out his hands. As he did so, he suddenly felt something charging him from behind. Turning around and instinctively bringing up his Un-Arm for protection, he was surprised when something clamped down on his metallic arm. He was about to fight off the creature when he realized what he was fighting and his skin paled.

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed, looking at the large bear-like dog. He gave himself a mental shake, noticing the small differences between this dog and Sirius's animagus form. Harry calmed himself a bit as he prepared to repel the creature. Before he could, however, one of the dog's fangs broke off causing it to back off with a whimper before walking away. Harry merely stared after the dog as he looked at its retreating back. "Tooth from a Grim! Brilliant!" Wallace exclaimed, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Harry was thinking about asking him, but decided against it as a waste of time.

Continuing the path and leaving Wallace to pick up the fang, Harry walked away before stopping as a cold chill filled up his spine. Harry looked to his left to see two red eyes staring at him. He examined the body of the creature carefully and noticed that its body was seemingly made from some form of black gas. Harry lifted his right hand, as if about to pet it before the creature seemed to ram its ghostly head against his palm.

In the time span of one second, there was only one eye staring at him while a red circular gem was in his hand. Harry silently thanked the creature with a slight bow before making his way towards Wallace. Said cat-boy was once again jumping ecstatically one he saw what was in Harry's hand. Harry sighed, knowing that this was going to take a while.

Just like Harry predicted, it took the rest of the day for Wallace to construct the wands. The boy had rushed Harry out to a waiting room of sorts to work on the wands himself. Finally, Harry was called back into the workroom to the sight of a grinning Wallace and two round objects on a table between them.

As he entered the room, the wand crafter made a "shush" posture and noise to tell Harry to be quiet, pointing at the two round objects, one yellow with red specks and one green with black stripes. Harry stared at the two before realizing they were eggs. Sure enough, the eggs were soon moving and shaking before a giant crack formed in each. Soon, the eggshells all but disintegrated, leaving one bony and one bulky creature on the table.

The green bony one looked to be made out of a kind of jell while the gold bulky figure looked like some kind of trophy. "Yay! Your new wands are done!" Wallace said, looking happily at the two creatures. Harry stared at the cat boy, clearly confused. That was, until the two figured turned to him and in a flash of green and yellow light turned into what Harry thought would be wands.

In short, it looked like a green bone and a gold dagger. Seeing Harry's confused look, Wallace decided to explain. "See, my wands are all living, and in turn become familiars with their owners. This also means that they will grow accordingly with you in power and physical appearance. Pick them up and see for yourself!"

Harry did as he was told, not believing that something like this actually existed. As his right hand touched the bone, he watched in morbid fascination, as it appeared to drill a hole into his index finger and burrowed into it. Surprisingly, Harry felt no pain. The gold dagger did something similar with his other hand and soon he had a gold dagger tattoo on the back of his Un-Arm hand.

Wallace gave a big smile, continuing his explanation. "The green one, made from the bone of a Gorgoop and eye of a cursed Shade. Twelve inches, bone-type allowing it to meld and combine with any organic manner. The gold one, made from charmed gold from the Egyptian tombs and the fang of a Grim. Thirteen inches, metal-type allowing it to combine with all metallic elements. There are also characteristics passed on from the materials of the original creatures."

Harry stared blankly at Wallace at that last comment, cuing the boy to continue.

"The Gorgoop are swamp creatures made completely of fluids with the odd one born with a bone structure every century. They are immune to all physical attacks and poisons. As such, that wand is unbreakable. A cursed shade is exceptionally weak against all physical attacks, but entirely immune to magic. Therefore, the wand is also immune from the effects foreign magic. As a result of these great defense mechanisms, it should give a bonus boost to all defensive spells.

The gold from Egypt are charmed to bring luck to the Pharaoh in his journey in the afterlife, combined with the cursed capabilities of the Grim, you have a very volatile wand in the gold one. These characteristics may result in a bonus for offensive spells as well as amplify all beneficial spells on yourself and your allies and curses on your opponents.

While these characteristics are true, you must also take in the consideration that your wands are two unique creatures created to be your familiars. As such, they may develop new or unlock hidden abilities."

The cat-boy took a big breath as he explained all of that. Harry took a moment to remember everything said before paying and thanking the little boy. He then quickly left, knowing that his time allotted by Dumbledore was almost up. Of course, he had promised that when he had time, he would visit Wallace to play with him (the boy wouldn't let him go otherwise). The outside weather had finally settled down, with no more snow except what was on the ground.

Quickly departing and going back to Gringotts, he retrieved his new family ring from a quick meeting with Gluttonmole. As Harry left Gringotts once more, he felt the familiar sensation of being followed. Before he could figure out who was following him, Harry heard the distinct sounds of apparition. The few people in the streets let out shrieks as he turned to face the arrival of a cluster of Death Eaters.

Harry was excited, and was about to engage and try out his new wands when he felt a pulling sensation in his mind. "_Leave this scene and return, Harry. This is not your fight._" The voice was distinctly Dumbledore's, and it was in his head. Harry was about to ignore it and fight anyways, when the pressure on his mind increased.

Sighing in defeat when he saw that, for once, aurors were quick in their arrival, Harry returned to the floating island.

* * *

Arriving shortly, Harry was face to face with Dumbledore. The ex-headmaster looked at Harry wearily. 'Probably because he knew I was planning on disobeying him.' Harry thought with a slight bit of smug satisfaction. "Harry, please leave everything from the mission here except for your wands and forehead protector. You have another mission." 

Harry narrowed his eyes at having to go on another "mission" so soon. Dumbledore seemed to ignore this as he continued. "This time, there is no time limit, and Snuffles will not be going with you either." At this, Harry was starting to get angry. "And why not? What's the point of Snuffles helping me if you don't let him?" Asked Harry, clearly unhappy with Dumbledore setting the rules.

"Because, Harry, the omnisence is fully prepared. You need more training and experience. You must earn the right to have it help you." Dumbledore replied condescendingly. Harry gritted his teeth as he willed himself to be calm. "What is it now? Maybe you want me to do more errands? Is it walking a dog? Or maybe wash my uncle's car?" Inquired Harry, the sarcasm was obvious in his voice. The reply he received, however, was not what he expected.

"You, Harry, are going to infiltrate the British Ministry of Magic and return to the department of mysteries."

* * *

Footnotes: 

(1): I'm not sure about the legal age in the magical world, so I made it 17 which is what Harry's age should be not considering the little time-slowing thing with his training. On that note, there may be several time jumps in the future, mostly because otherwise it'd be too boring and take too long to write this story.

(2): I'm using a translator for Latin, so it should actually be like "Body Gift", without the possessive "'s". I don't really have any real degree of understanding in Latin, so sorry if it's making some people cringe.

A/N: Whew! That was definitely long, but I succeeded in getting the semi-fillers done. From now on, there are at least 4 chapters of action coming up consecutively! Hurray violence! Actually, the latter two of the four might even warrant NC-17 ratings, so I'm still trying to figure out how that goes. Also, I might not be able to update as quickly as I have some thing I have to work on before school starts… think of it as summer homework XD. This might also be because I'm very tempted to start another story in the Naruto world… this I am trying to resist since I don't want to make the updates for this story even slower. By the way, I tried to make the whole wand-making and Gringotts-inheritance not too cliché, but it's my tribute to Heir!-Harry and some of the other norms that the Harry Potter fanfiction world has.

Anyways, please drop some review, and I may make the next chapter come faster XD.

Once more, hurray violence!

Peace

U-T signing out


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